la mia Parma

Perhaps it's just me who had never previously heard of Parma the City. I was discussing this today with a classmate: everyone knows Bologna, Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence, but Parma not so much. I was having to tell people I was going to a city near Bologna. He couldn't understand that. Being from Parma himself, and its University being one of the oldest, as well as the fabulous food and the longstanding history (mentioned below) it was of course, one assumes, a city much talked-about between Italians.

Yet when someone mentions prosciutto (parma ham) or parmigiano reggiano, something immediately clicks. These things are well-known to most English people. My town is the town that these two delicacies were named after! And the town which takes so much pride in every aspect of eating and cooking food possible.

But it's also rich in its history. An Italian friend was telling me how many parole parmigiane have something of a french twist. Owing to the influence of Maria Luigia, wife of Napoleon, who ruled Parma in the 1800s.  They absolutely love her here. They take pride in their heritage and their history (by naming every single shop possible a different variation on the Duchess' name).

There's also this building:

Grand and somewhat the antithesis of beauty, it somehow manages to house the Italian equivalent of the Globe theatre (that being it's all wooden and was also destroyed, and is honestly breathtaking) called Il Teatro Farnese.

This, plus the food, plus the Parco Ducale, mentioned fondly in many other posts, means that even in winter, when the fog comes rushing all around us and the cold becomes unbearable, there is something magical about this place.

This video was just posted to my town's erasmus page. I think it perfectly sums up everything about this wonderful little city that should be better known.

Enjoy!