VISIT VIGEVANO
Valentina Nicastro introduces us to the highlights of this città ideale of the Renaissance…
As a kid growing up in a small town in northern Italy, I couldn’t wait to go out and see the world, and the result was that for a while I totally ignored the delights of my own country. As an adult, however, I have come to discover some remarkable places with intriguing stories to tell, and I have learned to fall in love with my homeland again. One of the places that has particularly taken my heart in recent years is Vigevano, a delightful town 35km south of Milan that has a rich cultural heritage and an authentic vibe – and yet no hordes of tourists to spoil the atmosphere.
Vigevano’s modern history takes us back to the 15th century and the court of the then Duke of Milan, Ludovico Maria Sforza (also known as Il Moro). Vigevano was one of the preferred seats of the Duchy and, during his reign, Ludovico (who was born here, by the way) turned it into a magnificent town with a complex urban planning scheme based on the Renaissance principles of “the ideal city”. Leading artists supported him in this