Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
So we decided to wing it today and just got on the train for a day trip to Parma. This was one of the places that was on my must do list. We tried to find the tourist office but it was closing in 10 minutes and we (as usual) didnt know where we were going. Almost everything shuts down in the afternoons over here and i guess the tourism office was no different. We had some time to kill so we got a bit of a snack lunch and sat down in a piazza to eat. There were pigeons everywhere and we once again asked eachother why the hell there were so many school kids all over the place. School ends around one o clock but they go on Saturdays too. We finished lunch and wandered a bit before we made it to the office. We started looking for information on checking out the regions specialties - proscuitto and parmiggano reggiano. I found a brochure for a place that was too far for us to reach unless we had a car so I asked if there was anything closer to town or in the town itself. We were sent a block and a half over to this place that would have been impossible to find
. We walked in and there was no one around. Then we heard footsteps coming down the stairs and the guy who ran the place appeared. I asked him if now was a good time for a degustazione and he whisked us upstairs into a hybrid dining room and temporary art gallery. Sat us down and asked us if we want some wine. We did so he brought out something local. It was a sparkling red, something niether of us had tried before and it was nice. So far so good. Then the meat and cheese came out. Five different varieties of pork products. Some lean some really fatty. All tasty and the parmiggano was the best we had ever tried. We finished up and headed for the station, we were done doing what we came here for. We stopped off in Modena on the way home. Modena is the home of Maseratti, Ferarri and Ducatti motorbikes and is also the place that most of the balsamic vinegar in the world comes from. They had a church, it was fancy. They didn't let us take any pictures.
