Parma Italy was a stop on our recent trip. l was ready to cross the city off the list initially, but in the end, I’m glad we went. It was a fun 36 hours and l think that is just about enough time to see the center of the city.
Parma Italy – A beautiful City
I’m not even going to pretend that the purpose was other than to eat fantastic food, especially since the whole trip was a mangiapalooza. Any cultural sites seen were purely incidental.
I’d always thought Parma was only about Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, known as the true parmesan cheese. Little did l know that this college town in the Emilia-Romagna region was also famous for prosciutto (cured ham).
Needless to say, that was pretty much all Fede ate, while l made do with pasta as l am not much of a ham fan, especially when they don’t even put any mayonnaise on it. Dry is meh to me.
Here are some images of the city. I really liked it because it felt young and vibrant. Our hotel was right next to the Duomo, so we were in the thick of things.
Meanwhile in Valencia:
It’s Fallas time over here in Valencia, we’re right in the middle of the three-week celebration so a lot going on. Not as much noise this year from the crackers of the kids so l assume people are feeling the pinch. The daily two PM bombs from the city fireworks are still on though. Joy!
It’s either that, or they are saving it for the final week, which is when the majority of the tourists swarm in. If you want to see some of the ninots from this year, read the post here.
Should you visit Parma Italy?
If you’re squeezed for time, my first instinct would be to say no. While it is a great city, it doesn’t have as much to offer as nearby ones like Bologna. I would suggest making your base there and then going to Parma for the day. The train ride is half an hour and costs less than $5 each way. This is what we’ll do next time.
However, if you’re a fan of music and art, it is definitely worth it, especially if you can time your visit for the food and wine holiday for instance, or the concerts that take place often.
It was full to the hilt. I thought being a Thursday, it wouldn’t be too busy. We had a big argument after that, being unable to agree on a place and l was still so mad, l didn’t take any pictures of our food and ate in silence. Never again will l not make reservations :-).
One thing l do know, the next time we visit Bologna, we are headed to the place for sure. I am determined to try the food and drink my Lambrusco from a bowl.
Parma has one of the oldest universities (the university of Parma) in the world so there are lots of young people there. This means, for the most part, that prices are not that expensive for food in small eateries.
Like the rest of the region, there are lots of porticoes and really nice old streets that invite you to wander, which we did.
Have you visited Parma? Or the Emilia-Romagno region of Italy? Did you feast on food like we did? Food is life after all, is it not?