Rocca Sanvitale, Fontanellato

The Saletta di Diana e Atteone is a small vaulted room. Parmigianino painted a pergola of trees and putti across the vault and, around the lunettes, the story from Ovid: Actaeon the hunter sees the goddess Diana bathing, she turns him into a stag, and his own dogs tear him apart. It is early work by the painter whose arches you can see in Parma at Santa Maria della Steccata, and the room is regarded as a key work of Italian Mannerism.

The castle also offers a paid option to sit in the room alone or in pairs outside normal hours, by email booking to [email protected]. It does not publish a price for it online.

If Parmigianino is your reason for coming, read our guide to Correggio and Parmigianino and follow the painters' walk in Parma.

Beyond the Parmigianino room, the museum has frescoed rooms, period furniture and a picture gallery. The oddity is the Camera Ottica in one of the towers: a 19th-century arrangement of prisms and mirrors that projects the square outside onto three screens. The town says it is the only one still working in Italy.

The visit is split. The ground floor and the Parmigianino room can be seen on your own. The upper rooms go by guided tour at set times on weekdays: 10:15 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 2:45 p.m. and 4 p.m., with a 5:15 p.m. tour from April to October. On Sundays and holidays, tours run according to demand. The price list separates a €12 full route from a €6 partial one without saying exactly what the partial route leaves out, so ask at the desk if the camera obscura matters to you. Tours are in Italian; tours in other languages need booking.

In April and May it also opens on Tuesdays. Prices: full route €12 adults, €5 for children aged 6 to 16, €11 with a Castelli del Ducato card; partial route €6 adults and €2.50 children. The address is Piazza Matteotti 1; phone +39 0521 829055.

Bus, Monday to Saturday: city line 23 leaves Parma station (stop on viale Bottego) at 23 minutes past each hour, from 7:23 a.m. to 7:23 p.m., and reaches Fontanellato at 3 minutes past the next hour. Coming back, it leaves Fontanellato at 26 past and reaches Parma station at 5 past. A single costs €4; drivers do not sell tickets, so tap a contactless card on the validator or use the Teseo TEP app.

Bus, Sundays and holidays: only a few runs. From Parma station at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. (arriving 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.); back from Fontanellato at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:05 p.m. With the castle open all day on Sundays, the 10 a.m. out and 2:05 p.m. back gives you over three hours.

Car: 21.6 km (13 miles) from Piazza Garibaldi, about 26 minutes via the Fontanellato exit of the Parma ring road.

The Labirinto della Masone is 5.2 km away by road, about 10 minutes by car. Do the castle in the morning, when the guided tours run, and the maze in the afternoon, since the Labirinto does not close for lunch. Both close on Tuesdays. Without a car, the maze means a taxi from Fontanellato.

The other pairing is the Rocca Meli Lupi at Soragna, a lived-in princely castle further along the same bus line. Our castles of the Duchy guide compares them, and the castles-by-car day strings them together.

In town, the Santuario della Beata Vergine del Rosario is a baroque pilgrimage church in use since 1641, and an antiques market fills the arcades on the third Sunday of each month (next: October 18, 2026). A second market, Rocca e Natura, runs on the fourth Sunday (October 25).

Fontanellato: Labirinto della Masone Full-Day Entry Ticket

The Labirinto's own adult ticket is €20, so this costs a little more. Includes a discount at Rocca Sanvitale. No transport.

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Fontanellato: a castle and a labyrinth in Parma countryside

Private, so the per-person price falls with group size. Lunch not included. Only 12 reviews. The Labirinto alone is €20 direct.

7 hours

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