Day 19: A More Successful Day in Parma (date of visit: 6/22/2011)

Christine and I decided that we had to go back to that restaurant and eat delicious food in Parma, so today we got an earlier start and made it in time to eat. We started our morning walking to a pre-elementary school so Christine could pick up a little publication with an article she had written. Walking through the school made me seriously miss being a little kid. Everything was brightly colored with all the kids’ artwork hanging everywhere. There were also tons of little kids running around playing with their friends. It was a very happy atmosphere.

We went to the little café in the square to get breakfast before we journeyed to Parma. We were quite hungry when we got to Parma and went straight to the restaurant. Then we feasted! We started with torta fritta, parma ham, and cantaloupe. Torta fritta is like a pillow of delicious fried bread. It’s so good with the ham and cantaloupe. Incredibly delicious start. 

For the main course, we both got the ravioli sampler. There were three raviolis each of pumpkin, spinach and ricotta, and ham and cheese. Also, amazingly delicious.

By the end of lunch I was completely stuffed, but very content. Parma is definitely the place to have a crazy awesome meal. After eating all that food we had to walk around so we wouldn’t feel so full. We went into the book store and, both of us being former BN employees, were appalled at the way the books were shelved. I had to take a picture to show how terrible it was! Books were double-stacked and rubber banded together! It was crazy. 

We also found Harry Potter in Russian which I thought was interesting. 

We continued to walk around and window shop for a few more hours until we took the train home. There was a very strange poster by the train station that neither of us could figure out. If anyone has any ideas as to what this could possibly be, let me know because I’m clueless. 

We took the train back to Manerbio and now I must mention the horrible smells of rural Italy. There are lots of farms around here and they fertilize with manure and it is an awful smell. The mulch and stinky trees at RPI have got nothing and the monstrous smells of fields full of manure. It’s a very pervasive smell. It hasn’t been too bad, but they obviously just fertilized today and it was awful! Ah well, beautiful area, terrible smell. Can’t have everything, right?

I also finally got a picture of an Italian “billboard”. They absolutely crack me up. Every once in a while you’ll see a truck with those advertisement things on them. They’re certainly not as prevalent as they are in America. 

The rest of the night was just relaxing. I’m trying to decide where to go tomorrow. I could go somewhere a little further, but that requires me getting up at 4:30AM. Somehow I don’t think that will happen, but we’ll see!