“Frontier town” because, placed at the far west of Emilia, it borders Lombardia and is has absorbed many features of this region.

The first impact on the tourist is that of an industrial and modern town, with some urban blight in the suburbs.
This sensation disappears as soon as you enter the town center.
Almost a casket that once opened shows its hidden treasures to the travellers.
We show only a few images of these treasures taken along the short way from the train station to the thirteenth-century piazza Cavalli, symbol of the town together with its two horses.

The visit should include the Museo Civico at Palazzo Farnese which we already presented [see] and the surroundings of the town that you can find in the “special reports index” selecting the region “Emilia” [Piacenza].

A short history:

this territory was inhabited since the most ancient times by the Ligurians then by the Etruscans and afterwards by the Celts.
Together with Cremona it was the first Roman outpost against the advance of Hannibal in 218 BC.
Lombard ducky, it was conquered by the Franks and it assumed a remarkable importance around 1000 because it was a major junction along the Via Francigena.
Free city-state from 1336 to 1447, it passed to the Visconti, then to France and afterward to the Papal States.
From about 1500 it was ruled by the Farnese, except short periods.
From 1732 to 1859 it was ruled by the Bourbons.
On 10 May 1848 with a plebiscite it obtained the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia and since it was the first town asking for that it was called “The first-born of the Unification of Italy”.

For More info:
wikipedia: Piacenza