Discover Piazza degli Scacchi

The square is a broad rectangle closed on one side by the Castello Inferiore, a compact brick keep with a crenellated tower, and on the others by arcaded houses.

The chessboard itself is set into the paving at the centre, in light and dark stone, at full playing scale. It is a permanent civic feature rather than something laid out for the event -- which is why walking across it on an ordinary Tuesday is faintly odd and rather good.

Above and behind, the Scaligeri wall climbs the hillside to the upper castle, so the square has a fortification rising directly out of it.