from The autobiography of Leigh Hunt by Thornton Leigh Hunt, 1859

At Parma I tore my hair mentally at not being able to see the Correggios. Piacenza pleased us to be in it, on account of the name ; but a list of places in Italy is always like a set of musical tones. Parma, Piacenza, Voghera, Tortona, Felizima, —sounds like these convert a road-book into a music-book.

from An Iranian in nineteenth century Europe by Muhammad Alī Sayyāh, 1867

I took the train for Palermo. As the train moved, I watched the scenery from the window. All the hills and fields were leveled. The train had a stop in Piacenza By looking around the station I had the feeling that Piacenza had to be a good city. Therefore I got out of the train, deposited my belongings at the station left-luggage office, and went by the public carriage to the Rome Hotel, which was near the station.

Piacenza was situated by the Po River. Streams of water flowed in the city, and many good bridges were built over them. At the two sides of the bridges iron fences were placed for the safety of the people, and lamp-posts were fixed. The reflection of the light in the water was very pretty. There were also numerous bridges built for the pedestrians.

The population of Piacenza was 33,000. The language of the people was italian. The women in Piacenza had spinning wheels like the villagers. Most of the time they sat at home with their spinning. There were many musicians, singers, and dancers among the inhabitants, and they were good-looking.

The city had gas light. The telegraph and railroad trains were available to people. I visited the public library. Most of the books were in Italian. Piacenza had been the control of the popes. At the time I was there books were printed in Italian. Newspapers were printed in the same printing house.

In Piacenza there were numerous courts of justice for different crimes. The magistracy, which was really the city hall, was very good and well organized. The school called Alberti (Alberoni) taught reading and writing. Another school called Kazla (Gazzola) was for teaching painting and arts. The clergy had separate schools for educating children.

The city fortress was very strong, and its tower and ramparts were built of stone and bricks. In the middle of the town there was a good and wide avenue. The roads to villages were all graded.

Anyway, I stayed three days there. In the daytime I spent my time in the city streets, barracks, courthouses, and schools and in the evening in the numerous coffee shops that were in the city. In the afternoons and at midnight I listened to the tolling of the church bells, with their pleasant tunes.

I went to the train station to take the train to Parma. I was told that my ticket was no longer valid and I had to buy a new one.

I said, "I will do so, but in other cities the director signed the ticket and I continued my trip."

The response was, "This is a different place, and we are not eager to pretend that we are helpful people."

I immediately bought a new ticket and thought that my aim was to travel and to acquire knowledge. the experience of meeting that kind of people made me hold those I had seen previously in high esteem.

Finally I set off for Parma. On the way I noticed that many mountains were leveld. At all the train stops fruit, sausages, bread, cheese, and eggs were for sale. At each station the train stopped for one or two minutes.

from Notes from a Diary, Kept Chiefly in Southern India, 1881-1886 By Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, 1886

We gave an hour to Piacenza, and an hour may well be given to the fine, though dilapidated, cathedral and the Palazzo del Comune of this sadly fallen place, where the passage of a carriage from the railway station, with two strangers in it, is so remarkable that the very priest, who is carrying the Viaticum, stops to stare and to gossip with his attendant about so unheard of a circumstances!

from Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, Lady Companion to the Princess ... by Ellis Cornelia Knight

We liked Genoa much, but were compelled to leave it when the intrigues of the revolutionary government of France rendered this city an undesirable residence for English families. On our way to Rome we stayed a few days at Parma, the sovereign of which was greatly beloved by his subjects, for, it was said, he had never refused a petition, and never imposed a new tax. There was no appearance of poverty in his states, and I never saw a more happy people. How he and his country were treated by the French republicans is matter of history. Both Parma and Piacenza were free cities.
A few years after this visit I became acquainted with a regular canon of the great church of Piacenza, and who, according to custom, had his own cenfessional box. One day, after the French occupation of the country, he entered the church, with the intention of taking his own seat, but was surprised at not finding the confessional in its proper place. After looking about for it in all directions, he found it in a gallery lying on its side, and on the top of it the dead body of a French soldier, which three surgeons, or surgeon's mates, of that army were busily skinning. Horrified at the sight, he asked the meaning of this ghastly proceeding, and was told that some scientific men had discovered that the human skin made excellent leather. It had, therefore, been ordered that all dead bodies should be skinned, for the purpose of providing boots and shoes for the soldiers.

Some account of my life and writings: an autobiography (1883) by Sir Archibald Alison 1828

VISIT TO LORD BYRON
Having rejoined our carriage and the great road at Martigny, after ten days of exquisite enjoyment, we crossed the Simplon, and, after visiting the Italian lakes, repaired to Milan. Thence we went to Placentia to visit the double field of battle — of Hannibal against the Romans, and Suwarrow against Macdonald — which lies on the banks of the Trebbia, about three miles from that city. We went to the spot with Livy in our hands, and identified the features described by his graphic pen, particularly the hollow banks overhung with brushwood, unchanged after the lapse of two thousand years. 
With some difficulty I made myself master of the movements of the French and Russians on the same ground in recent times ; and it was there that I first recollect figuring to myself the description of a battle on the ground where it actually occurred. 
Next morning at Placentia I saw the two bronze statues of the Duke of Parma and another hero ; and I then felt for the first time that much of the effect of sculpture when in the open air consists in its being placed in a small square ; so small as to render the statue a considerable object with reference to the adjoining buildings, and to prevent it from being seen but at the proper distance, so as to have this effect preserved.

from a letter of Francis Marquess Of Tavistock To The Earl Of Upper Ossory, Paris, Sept. 12, 1763

... At Placentia, (for I shall observe the route I went, in speaking of the different places ; if you don't do the same, it will make no difference), — at Placentia, I say, you must see two equestrian statues in the Piazza; I did not much like them myself, but they A.D. are much admired, and I believe with great reason. You must absolutely see St. Augustino, a church built by my favourite architect Vignola...

from L'Hermite en Italie, The LATEST WORK Of MR. JOUY. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1824

[sul gioco del Cucù] 

I had at first intended to go directly to Florence,"by the way of Placentia and Parma; but my wish to enjoy for'a longer time the society of my new fellow-traveller caused me to change my direction, and I determined to accompany him to Bobbio. ...
In the course of the evening we played the game of chuchu (pronounced kookoo) which is suitable only for numerous parties. The pack is composed of nineteen double cards, each bearing u number from one to fifteen ; on five of the cards, between five and fifteen, are represented either a prison, a cat, a horse, a bregou, or the chuchu, or crowned owl, which is the highest card. On five other cards are grotesquely painted the representations of a fool, a bucket, a yellow mask with long ears, and the word nulla; the bucket is of less value than nulla, and the yellow mask is the lowest card of all.
" When each person has received five counters, and deposited his quota in the pool, the cards of the two packs are shuffled and dealt by the person who cuts them, each player receiving only one card. If the player on the right of the dealer is not satisfied with his card, he may pass it to his neighbour, unless the card hdld by the latter confer on him the privilege of making the former keep his card, which he is then compelled to do, however bad it may be. This exchange of cards is continued throughout the whole circle, till it comes to the turn of the person on the left of the dealer. When a player meets in the hand of his neighbour, the priton, the bregou, or the chuchu, his card is stopped, and he puts a counter into the pool. If he meets the cat, his card is passed from player to player till it comes into the hands of its first owner. If he meets the hone, bis card is passed to the person immediately below him who holds the horte; when two foolt meet, the persons holding them are entitled each to take a counter from the pool, and that is called faire firinc. In short, when the circle is completed, those who hold the lowest cards are condemned to put a counter into the pool, and the game is repeated till only one counter remains. The person who holds this, wins the game.
This game was the constant amusement of the numerous parties of the Marchioness. The packs of cards are sold at Placentia, and entitled, by the manufacturers, Nuovo e dilettevole giuoco del Chuchu, o giuoco del tratto In Pia cenza; that is, the new and delightful game of the chuchu, or fool at Placentia.