Emilia-Romagna · Parma
Fontanellato
A Parma-plain town built around the Rocca Sanvitale, the moated fortress at its center.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Fontanellato is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione, Cittaslow and Bandiera Lilla.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
- By car
- 27 min from Parma
- Population
- 7,055
- J7°
- F12°
- M15°
- A18°
- M23°
- J29°
- J32°
- A32°
- S26°
- O20°
- N13°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Fontanellato sits on the Parma plain, twenty kilometers northwest of Parma toward Piacenza. The town carries Borghi più belli, Bandiera Arancione, and Cittaslow recognition. The fortress at its center faces the municipal palace and the porticoed square, so civic and seigneurial life still read as one composition around Piazza Matteotti.
Construction began in the thirteenth century and ran through the fifteenth, and the moat still draws from an old resurgence rather than a diverted river. Three kilometers north, at the frazione of Masone, the plain opens onto the labyrinth grounds, a rural extension of the same town rather than a separate destination. What holds the place together is continuity of ownership and use: a single family's seven centuries in the Rocca, a sanctuary built to mark an apparition on the town's edge, and a modern garden project sited deliberately in the same orbit. Fontanellato reads less as a collection of sights than as one plan, fortress, piazza, sanctuary and frazione, laid out across a small stretch of flat land.
How to get there
From Bologna (BLQ), about 1 h 24 min by car.
Milan Bergamo (BGY) is about 1 h 43 min away.
By car from the center of Parma 27 min or Brescia 1 h 18 min.
Coming by train into Parma? Fontanellato is about 25 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Bologna airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Rocca Sanvitale
Square plan on Piazza Matteotti, three cylindrical towers and one square, the moat fed by an old resurgence. The Sanvitale family held the manor for seven hundred years, until Count Giovanni sold it to the municipality in 1948.
Saletta di Diana e Atteone
Small vaulted ground-floor room of the Rocca, commissioned by Galeazzo Sanvitale, with a central round mirror bearing the inscription respice finem.
Labirinto della Masone
Bamboo labyrinth designed by Franco Maria Ricci, with a star-shaped central plaza, three kilometers from the center at Masone.
Santuario della Beata Vergine del Santo Rosario
Sanctuary on the western edge of the centro, built from 1641 to mark a Marian apparition, with a venerated wooden image of the Madonna.
Piazza Matteotti
Central square ringed by the fortress, the municipal palace, and porticos lined with cafés and salumi shops.
Living here
Could you live here?
Fontanellato meets our one rule for a small town.
- 7,055 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Parma, a city of 198,693, is 27 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 7,055, up 1.1% since 2015
- Nearest city Parma, 27 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Fidenza, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,050 to €1,350 per m² to buy, €3.70 to €5.30 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 19% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Parma airport (PMF), 32 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bologna, 1 h 28 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
13% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Albania and India, against 9% across Italy. There are 194 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 20% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Parma province ranks 10th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Fidenza, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Parma, 16 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Parma, 16 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Modena, 69 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax at the 2025 rate, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Emilia-Romagna spends about €2,500 a month, €560 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €604 a year for water, on the Emilia-Romagna average. In Parma, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.41, a meal in a pizzeria €10.41 and a man's haircut €25.65.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 18% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 100% in a high or medium one. They show no residents in a high landslide zone.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
PARMIGIANINO
The 1524 fresco of Diana and Actaeon, painted in the Rocca Sanvitale when the artist was twenty, one of his earliest mature works.
MOATED ROCCA
Thirteenth-century fortress with four corner towers and a moat still filled with water, accessible by drawbridge from the piazza.
MASONE LABYRINTH
Largest bamboo labyrinth in the world, eight hectares, designed by Franco Maria Ricci and opened in 2015 at the frazione of Masone.
Common questions
- What is Fontanellato known for?
- Fontanellato is a Parma-plain town built around the Rocca Sanvitale, the moated fortress at its center.
- Where is Fontanellato?
- Fontanellato is a comune in the province of Parma, in Emilia-Romagna, at 45 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Fontanellato?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Parma (PMF), about 32 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Parma to Fontanellato?
- About 27 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Fontanellato?
- Best in Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Fontanellato?
- Busseto, San Giovanni in Marignano and Soave.
- How many people live in Fontanellato?
- 7,055 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Fontanellato a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Fontanellato is a small town that meets our one rule. The nearest city, Parma, is 27 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Fidenza, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 19% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
The numbers
- Elevation: 45 m
- Population: 7,055
- Surface area: 53.98 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Similar
Towns like Fontanellato
What all six share with Fontanellato: in the Po valley · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · near sea level
Our guide
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