Let’s move from one place to another, thinking about how the territory should have looked in ancient times: Sacca, a small town near Colorno, so called because it stands in a cove of the Po (here came the coffin of Maria Luigia in 1848 to be ferried on the side of Casalmaggiore); Roncocampocanneto, or Roncopascolo, or Roncole di Busseto, all deriving from the term “ronco”, from the medieval Latin “runcare”, i.e. “dissodare”; then there are the settlements near watercourses, for which the Latin expression “caput”, “al capo”, is used at the end of that watercourse: Coltaro, Caput Tari, even if by now far from the Taro; Colorno, Caput Lurnio, where the Lorno canal flows into the Parma stream.
The transformation that a watercourse can bring to a territory is very strong: the inhabited centre of Sissa owes its name to the Latin term “sixia”, separated, in very distant times, following the changes in the riverbed, from Palasone, its current hamlet (by the way: we recommend tasting the Spalla Cruda di Palasone).
Look for the origins of the other place names: Sorbolo, Busseto, Frassinara, and then towards the hills, Collecchio, or Torrechiara, and even further, towards the mountains, Tizzano …