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Blogs from Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe
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September 4th 2012
We woke up and had breakfast with Peta and Eberchart. I’m still full from last night, but everything looks so good. We visited for 3-4 hours and then said our good byes. I told Kirsten I wanted to rest, so Bea took over navigating. Let me just say, Kirsten asked me to plan this trip early on. We typically have very loose plans. However, this time I decided to tighten up our plans a little. The original plan was to fly into Zurich, head south, attend the Opera in Verona, then go and visit their cousin. From there we would continue south toward Florence. Easy, Wrong, before I know it were now heading toward Parma. That’s west, not south. After Parma Kirsten asked Bea to start looking for another agriturismo for the night. We stopped in ... read more
May 7th 2012
We took a late night flight to Bologna, Italy for a burn around the country side and some fine eating. We woke in our reasonably priced, but very clean hotel room to bright blue skies. Which was a nice change from a gloomy April in London. Scott and I headed into the main square to wait for a flying pick up by Adam and Myles who had been driving around Tuscany leading up to the long weekend. We had a poke around the square and found an excellent little foodie alley with amazing hams, cheeses, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables which was a buzz with locals picking up their groceries. We enjoyed one of many espressos watching the world go by, including a pensioner enjoying an early morning dirty martini. Why not on a beautiful ... read more
September 19th 2011
We had two lucky breaks today. Traveling from Venice to Cinque Terre involved several changes of train, so when planning we had decided to stay overnight somewhere on the way to break up the travel. Parma was a small town on the way, so we decided to book accommodation, blessing in disguise. We had not been able to book online the train to La Spezia, so we decided before leaving the station to book the train for the following day. Whilst in the long line up, many people were indicating frustration at not being able to see on the boards what platform to go to for the La Spezia connection from Parma, due in only about 15 mins. It seems there is a train strike today, so no train connections to La Spezia were going ... read more
July 1st 2011
Well I just finished my last week in Parma and I could not have asked for anything better. On Wednesday the professor that I have been interning for could not take the Parma heat anymore and decided to take Jackie and I to the sea side. We drove 2 hours (in his Porsche) to cooler weather and had a great night and day there. For dinner we ate along the canal which was designed by Leonardo, the canal goes right through the city and is lined with sail boats along its edges. We had this traditional fish dinner which instead of being fried fish like I thought it was really more like fried "everything you can find in the ocean".... Not so great but at least I was branching out. We had a delicious dessert which ... read more
September 27th 2010
Sunday 26th September 2010 On the move, reluctantly leaving Lake Garda and heading to the Italian Riviera. Crossing the area which produces parmesan. Couldn’t resist stopping at a producer and buying some - parmigiano reggiano extra aged 26 months and delicious. Decide to break the journey and stay over near Parma at a lovely countryside location before continuing to the coast Monday. ... read more
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June 24th 2009
OK, so I am a bit late with this one but what the hell! Went to an expert-meeting (yupp-that's me!) but decided to: A) Check out the local bike scene. All those sweet Moto Guzzis, Ducatis, Moto Morinis, Laverdas, Aprilias... B) Check out the local ji-jutsu scene. The local bike scene OK, so this was a bit disappointing. Nothing in the motorcycle department except beemers and two H-D sportsters. No ducatis...no...nothing...Naw! Vespas and a ton of them everywhere! And the local ji-jutsu scene? Well, that's another story... ... read more
January 18th 2009
After Venice, Kai and I took a train to Bologna. We ate a delicious lunch - I had pasta with ham and asparagus, one of the best meals of the trip. We were only there for an hour waiting for our next train. We arrived in Parma a few hours later. We were visiting Kai's friend Gabe. Gabe was an exchange student in Kai's high school 4 years ago. He was home with his family in Parma for the holidays. He picked us up at the train station and brought us to his house. He and his family are really nice and gave us a free place to stay. After getting settled, we walked downtown through the outdoor Christmas market. It was really crowded because it was a few days before Christmas. We met up with ... read more
October 23rd 2008
On Wednesday night we travelled across to Parma - a city famous for its cheese and ham and composer Giuseppe Verdi. Parma celebrates its most famous citizen, Verdi, with a month-long festival of operas and concerts held at the Teatro Regio every year and so when Viviana suggested coming to Parma (which is about 90 minutes on the train) I thought why not? At this point I must apologise for the quality of photographs, I left the hotel without my camera and had to use my Nokia phone for the photography. Not great quality at the best of times but in the absence of my camera it would have to do. Once tickets were secured it was time for an aperitif and a bite to eat. We spotted a free table at Noi de Parma , ... read more
July 7th 2008
Wow, let’s see, where to begin with this one…? We finished the first leg of our ex-Yugoslav adventure with a show in Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is a beautiful city - plenty of upscale areas with premium shopping, yet embraced by nature and history, with many lush green parks and lovely old architectural landmarks, including a really nice cathedral. We had a great show there. Although it had it’s share of technical difficulties and sound mishaps, the place was jam-packed and the energy was zinging! The next day had us making a long journey back into France. We passed through five countries in about 11 hours - Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and France. Being from the US, where you can drive all day and not quite make it through Texas, this is a strange and interesting concept! ... read more
May 9th 2008
Yesterday we left Milan after a great two days and hopped on a train to Parma! We spent the night walking around the town, getting an amazing group dinner with lots of pizza, and catching up on some work we had put off. Today, we woke up early and walked to the a piazza and got straight to work measuring and mapping out the public space. We got done around 15.00 and walked around the town, looking into little shops and food places. There was this one store we walked into…I guess you could compare it to a deli in the U.S., except it was MUUUUUCCCCCHH better! We walked in and the smell was incredible and there was cheese and meat everywhere! We picked up some different kinds of cheese and some bread, then stopped at ... read more
