from Remains by Rev. Edmund Dorr Griffin, 1831

[June 8] From Parma to Placentia, the road crosses a number of the branches of the Po, presenting at this season broad stony beds, most of them entirely without water. ... Placentia is seated at a short distance from the Po, and contains about twenty-seven thousand inhabitants. Its streets are narrow and sombre; its houses, built entirely of brick, are many of them left entirely uncovered, either by paint or plaster; scarcely a creature is to be seen moving, even at mid-day - it seems, indeed, a city of the dead.