To the most, Pomponesco brings to mind "Don Camillo". After all, it is precisely here that the 1983 film, starring Terence Hill, was shot. A link, the one between the place and the actor, that the town has chosen to formalize. Like? Proclaiming Terence Hill his honorary citizen. He did it last August 7, before the exceptional screening of “Don Camillo” in the places where the film was shot. In that village where the actor has lived for a long time, residing with his family in the hotel Il Leone, to direct the film and to take on the role of the unforgettable priest. Not only that: Terence Hill has also become luadel ambassador, a typical product of the country, rediscovered by the restaurant of Cavalier Saltini and proposed today in a version revisited by the Il Cesto bakery. "I might come back to make another movie”Confessed Mario Girotti, receiving a commemorative plaque from the mayor. And making the inhabitants of the village dream.
Pomponesco, the story
Pomponesco's story begins from afar, and his name also suggests it: Pomponesco it derives in fact from the Roman Pompea family, who lived here. It was the first century after Christ, when the Romans arrived in those lands already inhabited by the Etruscans, as evidenced by the sarcophagus of the nineteen year old Pompea found in the village and preserved today in the Ducal Palace of Mantua. Subsequently, Pomponesco came into possession of the Benedictine monks of Leno, the Este and the Gonzaga. When Ludovico II Gonzaga died, it was inherited by the Gonzagas of Gazzuolo and Bozzolo who, in the person of Giulio Cesare Gonzaga, wanted to build a "ideal city". Thus, Julius Caesar moved to the hexagonal castle and redesigned the town planning, minted his own coin and the village became a county. Initially inhabited by farmers, rope-makers and tanners, when the Gonzaga domination ended, numerous Jewish families arrived attracted by the grain and livestock trade and river traffic.
What to see in the village
A Pomponesco there is a square, so suggestive that many directors - from Mario Soldati to Bernardo Bertolucci - have chosen to immortalize it. Piazza XXIII Aprile, this is its name, has the same appearance as it had in the seventeenth century, with those arcaded buildings that once housed the courtiers (their construction is dated between 1590 and 1630). But if the wooden ceilings have remained practically everywhere, the frescoes are visible today only in the hotel overlooking the square. Among the other buildings facing the square, the Town Hall , archipetral church of Santa Felicita and the Seven Martyrs Brothers. Which, dated 1339, was actually renovated between 1829 and 1831 (from the embankment it is possible to see the original structure of the facade). Also worth seeing Cantoni Palace, with the little one Jewish cemetery where Alberto Cantoni rests, and the theater of the 900. Then, lovers of two wheels can take the opportunity to ride along the The Po cycle path.
After a visit to Pomponesco, it is possible to sit in one of the local trattorias to enjoy a plate of cappelletti in broth, with a stuffing based on beef stew, or Mantuan pumpkin tortelli with macaroons and quince mustard. The product to take home? The luadel, the so-called "flatbread of the poor", a puff pastry-based bread to accompany cold cuts and cheeses.
Featured photo taken from Golene Golose Facebook page (photo A. Miti)
