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DISCOVERING VALENZA AND THE SURROUNDINGS

Valenza, the “city of the gold”, stays on the borderline between this kind, but discreet, corner of Piedmont, and the river, the Po, a long and docile line that puts the city side by side to the laborious and plain land of the Lombard Lomellina. Meeting the territory of Valenza means getting to know its golden notoriety, but means also trying to abandon it to go more in depth to its ancient roots, that it is step by step a bit losing, those roots that stay upon the hills that encircle it and of the vines that colour its limits, until the fog has not resumed its reign here, at the beginning of Autumn. Or those roots that are stuck in the water of the river, of the Po that has accompanied the city along all the duration of its long history.

In Valenza it is necessary to go for a walk in the centre where the windows of the jewelry shops glorify the skills of its craftsmen who managed to become famous all over the world. Getting to know this village that has grown so fast means being able to enter in a goldsmiths’ laboratory, especially in one of smallest, to observe the entire working process, from the fusion of the metal to the mounting of the precious stones. Valenza is today especially this, but it offers the travellers other attractions, those of its surroundings, until leaving definitively the Padan Plain in order to enter, up and down its hills, in the sweet Monferrato.

Having said so, it should be clear that the tourist, in this zone, should not only visit the city, but also the small villages, of the plain and of the hills, that encircle Valenza. Among these, there is San Salvatore, the ancient Genzano, object of imperial donations and of repeated pillages, with a tower that dominates it since 1410. In San Salvatore the legend of the Madonna del Pozzo is famous for many and many years. According to such a legend, on May 15 1616 a Spanish soldier, Martino de Nava, was assaulted and thrown in a well by a peasant who was desperate from the raids that kept on being done by the armies. Martino, wounded, called on the Virgin that made the level of the water raise until the edge so that the Spanish was saved. Just in that moment the soldier saw the Virgin with the Child who took his hand and accompanied him until his camp. Near the well of the miracle, a chapel was immediately built and later on a sanctuary too.

Between the villages of the plain area, Rivarone deserves being mentioned, since it is famous for its cherries, the ancient Pecetto and finally Bassignana which was well-known for the cultivation of the peaches until, in 1947, a violent storm in July wiped out all the: after a week, ice and fruits could still be noticed together in the ditches along the roads. It was a such catastrophe that the producers decided not to plant the trees any more.

- THE CITY OF VALENZA