Parma

I went to Parma for the weekend, just 2 days. I left Friday morning at 7:22 and arrived around 10:30. After checking into my hotel I started walking. It is a beautiful city. There was plenty to see and do without being touristy. The people were so friendly and there had to be about 5 bikes for every one car. I spoke Italian the entire weekend, which was a struggle at times, but the only way i'm going to get any better.

On Friday I visited mostly churches, three actually and a baptistry and monestary. All beautiful, much of them decorated by Parmesiano or Correggio (not sure about either spelling). During la siesta I walked down to the Citadel, it's basically an old fortress that has been turned into a park. It was a beautiful day and a perfect way to walk off my fantastic lunch. I had lunch in Piazza Garibaldi, the main square. I sat outside in a glass greenhouse type place. I had the menu of the day which consisted of Penne con pomodoro e basilico...basic pasta but done perfectly, followed by the specialties of Parma (Parmigiano cheese and prociutto di parma), finished with a coffee and all washed down with a beautiful glass of wine.
After the Citadel I wandered back stopping at the Cathedral, Baptistry and Monestary. I also stopped at the church museum where i was handed a card explaining some of the items...in italian...I asked for one in English and was pleased when the attendent was suprised i didn't actually speak Italian.

Finally I just wandered back to the hotel...by 5pm I was exhausted, I had gotten up at 6 and walked a lot that day. I watched some tv, I had CNN which should have been nice because it's in english but they repeat the same thing over and over so i ended up watching an italian game show...apparently they like their game shows...after dinner I watched the worst deal or no deal rip off...instead of beautiful ladies it was the contestants friends, instead of a high tech cordless phone it was a regular phone...with a cord, instead of nice briefcases they had decorated shoeboxes...
For dinner I just went to the restaurant next door, had a decent meal...it was probably the fastest meal of my life because i was the only person in the place so i guess they were able to get my food out quick...apparently even 8 is early in Parma.
This morning, Saturday, I got up at 8, packed all my stuff up and had a pretty good breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast I went to a bunch of museum. I saw some pretty decent artwork, some of which i recognized from my Art History course...my favorite thing was when I turned a corner and saw a Da Vinci, one that I actually recognized (from Ever After)



After visiting 2 museums and an old theater (really cool by the way) I went to the Ducal Park. First I went to the Ducal Palace which is now the local police station, but you can visit part of the Palace...my favorite was when an older gentleman literally unlocked the Palace for my and the couple I arrived with. We were able to visit some beautifually frescoed rooms.

After the Palace I just walked around the Park...equally beautiful and fun to watch all the little bambini feeding the fish.

After the Park I needed lunch and then wanted to pick up some Parma specialties to bring back. The first place I saw was a street market, the vendors were really nice and let me taste everything! I had some spreads (onions, olives, tomatoe, pepperoncini, ect...), lemoncello, cheese, and chocolate with a pepperoncini filling.

Finally I stopped at a meat shop and bought some parmigiano e prociutto di parma. Some how in my very bad italian I managed to impress upon the butcher that I needed the prociutto to last for 3 weeks so he vacumn sealed it for me which was fantastic.

I got on the train at about 2pm. Originally I had been planning on staying later but i was exhausted! I truly loved being able to travel alone and was able to see what I wanted to see, when I wanted to see it and was able to do it all faster than with a large group.

Great weekend, but glad to be "home."

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