Cento - where Velazquez met Guercino at work and Lamborghini built his cars

Little Cento is not a mere village, but a historic town with a 14th century brick fortress, the Rocca, the opera Teatro Borgatti opened in 1861 and hosts works by its local baroque masterpainter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591—1666) at Collegiata di S. Biagio, at Chiesa del Rosario and especially at the Pinacoteca Civica. Better known as Guercino, he was deeply studied by Sir Denis Mahon (1910-2011), who donated and left on bequest various works by the masters and his scholars as well as a Cheater by Caravaggio. Imagine here Velazquez meeting the master personally, Goethe coming to admire his work, Ferruccio Lamborghini submitting to the director of the local savings bank his latest projects for a new car model. Cento becomes very entertaining at Carnevale. Not to be missed: a photographic session at the Parco del Gigante.

All pictures by Elisabetta Gulino