3:15pm: sitting in my practically 2-bedroom apartment in Parma. Still 60 euros, but Max, the friendly owner, said the room was available to he gave me the upgrade. What a nice guy. Woke up a little before 7:30, finished packing, got breakfast, and checked out of the lovely Hotel Paradise. They called a cab for me and I made it onto the 8:30 slower train to Parma.
My luggage is getting progressively heavier and the slow Regional trains have much smaller space between them, so I had to put it above me on the rack. Luckily a couple friendly people helped me get it up and down! The girl who helped me get it down was about my age and I said sorry I didn't speak Italian but I just didn't want to hurt her. She spoke English and started asking me where I'm from and she got all wide-eyed when I said I live in LA. I assume she's never been there ;)
Arrived shortly after 9:30am and purchased my ticket for tomorrow so I'd have one less thing to worry about then. Had to wait a while for a taxi but then went quickly to the B&B. My room wasn't quite ready yet, but Max invited me into his apartment (he lives downstairs from the rooms he rents), gave me a map and booklet and showed me some things. We arranged to meet at 2 so I could get the keys to my room.
Did all the "tourist" stuff, including the impressive Teatro Farnese, the gorgeous Duomo and Baptistery, a few other churches, the main square (Piazza Garibaldi), and general wandering. Parma's very compact and easy to get around. It's very beautiful and classy. And I got my obligatory cheesy magnet! (in this case literally cheesy :))
Found Trattoria Correiri, which had been recommended a lot of places, and had lunch around noon. Got torta fritta - typical fried bread that I had wanted to try - and prosciutto. The bread was awesome. Even the ham was awesome. Then I got capellati (I think?) in brodo, which was similar to the tortellini in brodo but a different shape. This place was interesting, once you ordered they put a slip on your table, and the waiters kept looking at it. This one waiter looked at my slip and made a face. Still kind of wonder what he was thinking. Anyway, by the time my soup came I was pretty full so I ate about half of it and went. It was a fairly expensive lunch but I'm still full almost 3 hours later and if you don't eat well in one of the best food cities in all the world, where will you eat well?
After lunch I wandered around a bit and back to the B&B. I checked out the Billa supermarket right nearby just to see what it is like. Pretty impressive. Met Max at 2 and he showed me everything I need. My "room" is beautiful. I'm trying to upload pictures from yesterday and the rest of the day's before, but the internet connection here is weak and the large files of my pictures is killing it. I'm looking into getting the flickr uploadr, which would maybe be able to shrink the size of the pics and make for easier uploading.
5:50pm: wandered around the gorgeous park. Wandered through the historical center again when I felt a couple droplets of rain, so I came back to get my umbrella and jacket just in case it continues to get worse as the sun sets.
10:20pm: back from dinner. Decided to go back to Trattoria Correire, after walking around for a while and not seeing anything that really struck my fancy. I almost got the same thing I had for lunch (minus the soup!!!!!!) but the waitress spoke more English than the guy at lunch so I asked her what the "risotto parmigiana" was and she said, it was just cheese. So, I tried that. And some Lambrusco (I still don't like red wine:)). It was, well, rice (cooked al dente, interestingly) in a sauce of melted parmagiano. No other way to describe it! With three big thin slices laid on top of the rice, then they also brought a bowl of grated cheese to me. Really? Not enough in the dish already??? So I ordered a "crumbly almond cake" for dessert, having no idea what it was going to be. Basically, it was a big hunk of handmade "cookie" that had at least a hundred huge, whole almonds in it. It was delicious. Parma's reputation for great food is certainly deserved, even if I did only eat in one place :p however, right near my B&B there is a pizzeria/foccaceria and the smells coming out of this place are… wow. I think I will check it out tomorrow after the cheese tour when I'll need a quick lunch before getting on the train to Cinque Terre.
So I was able to get up the pictures from yesterday and the day before, so that completes Bologna. Parma's pretty so I took a lot of pictures here and I need to go to bed, so there's no way I'm going to get these pics up before I "drop off the grid" unfortunately. This will, I believe, be the last blog I can post until my very last night in Florence. :( Don't forget to come back and check then!
One final note about Parma: There are a lot of bike-riders here. And half of them have a cigarette hanging off their finger as they ride. Pointless much?
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