Parma (Simplicity)

We chose to visit Parma because Italy's agritourism websites listed it as being within our budget and within a short enough distance to the city center. Also, the B&B had a free bikes for use to it's occupants. I had a vision of me and my husband biking through the city center of a small italian town in between stops to eat local parmesan cheese. ;) It didn't turn out exactly like that, but it was still a wonderful stop indeed.

We took a bus from the train station. Our Italian ignorance enabled us to get a free ride or perhaps it's because the bus driver felt sorry for us. You see, we were asking him to drop us off in front of a prison (the name of our stop was "carcerie.") What the charming photos/descriptions of our B&B cleverly "forgot" to mention was that it was directly adjacent to what seemed to be a fairly important prison. The owner did a good (well, as best he could) job of growing bushes and hedges to mask the prison, but it was still uncomfortably close. What was lost in the proximity to the prison was made up in the charm of the place. Our room was lovely with exposed beams in the bedroom and cold, stone tiles in the bathroom. The best part of the entire house was a perfect little breakfast room with a slanted ceiling. The breakfast was less than desirable however with only packaged pastries and some cereal/milk.

It was raining when we arrived so we decided to do what we do: we ventured out to purchase a bottle of wine to accompany our card playing lazy afternoon. The owner told of us a small pub down the road (well, down the grass pathway) operated by an older gentlemen. He sells beer (mostly to other old men) and wine and also, if we request it before 5 pm or so - he will make dinner. So we ventured to this restaurant/bar/hangout and found said man. He was the picture of Italian - so vibrant and lovely. We purchased a bottle of wine from him and also managed in our pseudo sign language/pseudo broken italian to request to have a meal around 8 PM. He was delighted.

We returned for our dinner, which was among the best and the cheapest of all we had in Italy. We returned the next night as well. The decor of this place is something like a legion's club (white walls with ten year old birthday signs hanging about), but he put a special table aside for us and covered it with a table cloth. We were his guests.

This was, of course, our most memorable experience in Parma. We did ride our bikes through Parma, but it rained a good bit and the town was mid-sized, not the small quaintness that I had imagined. We didn't get to take a cheese tour (we didn't book in time), but we did find a small market to purchase the locally made cheese. It was delightful! We ate SOOOO much cheese on this trip. I won't tell you that it turned our "movements" much darker and pastier causing them to horribly stain the toilet each time - 'cause that would be going way too far. ;)

We really enjoyed a relaxing time in Parma. The little Italian chef really made it wonderful - we got what we were looking for: the localiest (?) possible food. ;)