The town is located along the Roman via Postumia, now called via Emilia Pavese.
The history of the town is traditionally associated with St. Rocco (Rocco from Montpellier), who found shelter in this place.
The lower Po valley welcomes the visitor during the seasons with different faces, autumn with warm colours, winter with fog, which muffles the atmosphere, spring with the domination of green in all its shades, summer made of sounds: chirping crickets, threshing tractors, running water irrigating the fields, croaking frogs.
In the ancient part of the town stands the Castle of medieval origin; as in every small village the religious architecture is flanked by civil architecture.
In Sarmato there are the "Church of S. Maria Assunta", interesting for religious pilgrimages, the church and the "Grotta of S. Rocco" where it's thought the pilgrim found shelter, and on the road to Borgonovo Val Tidone worth visiting is the "Santuario of the Madonna di Caravaggio".
Alongside the typical Piacenza courses there are specialties of the river region such as marinated eels, catfish, anfried frogs.
At the end of May, the "Festa del Salame", takes place in an area that has known the use of pork since the time of the Gauls.
A few kilometers from Castel San Giovanni, Sarmato opens up towards the hills of Val Tidone representing a contact point between them and the area of the Po river.
