[June, 2013] On one Sunday when we felt summer for the first time this year, I went to Piacenza in Emilia Romagna from Milan.
When I got off the car, this huge Fernese Palace was in front of me.
It is rather a fortress than a palace.
Reading the leaflet, I felt the rise and fall of a state or a power deeply.
This palace was commissioned by Margaret who was a illegitimate daughter of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles 5 and her husband Ottavio Farnese in 1558.
The building work was succeeded by their child, Alessandro and other offsprings until 1731 when the last Farnese Duke died.
After that the unfinished palace went from bad to worse.
The hair to the Farnese family was a relative and he took most of the valuable furniture and paintings away from the palace.
Then in 1803, the troops of Napoleon looted there.
And in 1822, the Austrian army used it as a barrack.
People take care of things as long as you feel it is yours and once it becomes others, they do not care.
My thought jumped far, but I thought about M&A activities of companies.
As it often happens in the UK, a lot of locally developed companies are sold easily to foreign companies.
I do not think that is a good idea in a long run.
Anyway, now this palace belongs to the city and some parts are used as museums.
