Day 35: Parma, Parma, Parma

We had a full day to just wander Parma. No plans except for the delicate art of eating without spending too much money.

First stop: Galleria Nazionale di Parma which was a crazy maze filled with lots of classical art (and not too many people). While I may have lost Adam for a bit due to the odd layout and even though the gallery staff tended to follow you around (stop it!), I'm a sucker for old Italian art and loved being there for a few hours.

I had a god awful sleep. The AC at the hotel was switched off now that it wasn't summer, but if you opened your window to let some cool breeze in, you were woken up by buses and motorcycles. So while this is a lovely sunrise photo, in reality all I wanted to be was in a deep sleep. Curse you, Ibis Styles.

I always feel like a true Italian when I go to a little cafe and order a pastry and a cappuccino (but only before 11am) and consume both while standing at the counter.

This place felt like a grandma's house with all the random trinkets and silverware about.

I get little heart palpitations when I enter delis in Italy. I want one of everything please.

Just taking a walk in the park. We were walking to a fountain which had four stars on Google which led me to the question – who reviews fountains? Who are you people? What other things do you review?

There is something going on with my hair that I definitely don't like.

Terrible photo, Sophia. But what you can't properly see is that this sky blue hut houses vending machines that sell milk, yoghurt and (of course) parmesan cheese. For all your dairy emergencies.

Barilla owns this city.

So lunch... Because of the number of places you can buy all sorts of delicious treats, we decided to create a bit of a picnic hamper for ourselves by buying a little bit of food from a bunch of places around town. It seems like a cheap idea, but it's pretty easy to go nuts.

The spread – prosciutto, marinated anchovies, pork crackling, totelli in a beef ragu, fresh ricotta and bread (micca). We were pretty smug until we were attacked by bees. Stupid bees.

Palazzo della Pilotta, where the Galleria Nazionale di Parma is and where we ate lunch and were swarmed by bees.

Enoteca Fontana was open with their €1,40 wines so naturally we took advantage.

And we took advantage again. This time, I did something about my awfully flat hair and visited Enoteca Fontana again pre-dinner. We decided to splurge and order what those old boys were ordering at the table in the back. It was this €12 honey-ish pinot grigio. I wasn't a fan but hey, if the old boys are doing it...

We booked ourselves in for dinner at La Greppia which is an old school restaurant we'd heard mentioned a lot. I know I said this place was old school, but it really was. The waiter handed us our menu and there were no prices in mine. I mentioned this to Adam and he had no idea what I was talking about. Turns out they give the man the menu with the prices and the woman the menu without. Now, I know a lot of people might be offended by this, but I kind of liked the old world nature of it.

Aaaand this right here is culatello with charcoal butter. Culatello is a cured pork (like prosciutto) but is made exclusively along the banks of the Po River. It's served with butter because it's more dry than prosciutto. It was my first taste of the stuff, which made me only more excited for our upcoming Culatello tour (more on that in a later post).

I can't get enough of pasta. This is ravioli with pumpkin served with a dash of balsamic vinegar. 

A simple pasta (looks like noodles!) with prosciutto and asparagus.

Pasta face!

I loved this place. They came out with a little amuse bouche to begin and capped it all off with a plate of petit-fours. 

Finishing off dinner with an espresso. With a lid. Served with four kinds of sugar. Good night.