Every design for Carpi

Carpi lies out on the flat Po Valley plain, north-west of Modena and right up against the border with Reggio Emilia. Its name is thought to come from the hornbeam, the tree that once filled the woods of this plain, and its coat of arms carries the falcon of a Lombard legend.

What stays with you after a first visit is the sheer space of Piazza dei Martiri, one of the largest squares in Italy, with its long arcade, the cathedral, the town hall and the Castello dei Pio facing one another across it. On Thursdays and Saturdays the market fills it. The Pio family ruled here for two centuries and left a town of Renaissance ambition, now on show in the Musei di Palazzo dei Pio. Carpi is also a busy centre of industry and craft, the largest town in Emilia-Romagna that is not a provincial capital, and the birthplace of the marathon runner Dorando Pietri. At Fossoli, a hamlet outside town, the former wartime camp is kept as a memorial.

The castle is the image most people carry away: battlements, towers and a Renaissance front looking out over that enormous square. It is Carpi in a single picture, and a fine one to wear.