Every design for Voghera

Napoleon set up his headquarters in Voghera's Palazzo Dattili before the battle of Montebello — one of many armies to pass through a town that has always stood on the road to somewhere else. Known to the Romans as Iria, it lies on the Staffora just south of the Po, and today it is the main town of the Oltrepò Pavese, with vineyards on the hills and one of the busiest railway junctions in Italy's north-west.

The Castello Visconteo, raised by the Visconti, anchors the centre, and a short walk away the red-brick Tempio Sacrario della Cavalleria — the "Red Church" — is among the oldest buildings in town. Daily life keeps the rhythm of the Po valley: foggy winter mornings, sticky summer afternoons, Oltrepò wine on the table. Railway enthusiasts head for the Museo Ferroviario "Enrico Pessina", while the Museo Storico "Giuseppe Beccari" holds, among much else, the small car of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa. Out of town, Cowtown brings a slice of the Wild West to Lombardy.

The rest of Italy may joke about the "Voghera housewife", but you know better. Wear this map and you carry the streets between the castle and the station that you could walk with your eyes closed.