Nov 24, 2012 - Parma

Our adventure in Parma was doing our laundry! We found a Lavenderia, which was a little hole in the wall of a place. The manager was very kind, and we managed to figure out what to do in spite of language barriers. The washing went fine, but after three rounds with the driers and dozens of euros, our clothes were still not dry. So we hauled all our stuff the the hotel and draped them over everything! They were dry by the next morning, fortunately.

May 15, 2012 - Parma, Northern Italy

We had a nice week in Parma. It, like most Italian cities had plenty of beautiful churches, galleries and museums as well as a couple of splendid theatres. With a population of about 178,000 it is a very vibrant and clean city. With the university here, there are plenty of young people as well. And on the one night we went out late, we found everyone very well behaved while having fun...unlike the gold coast.! Parma is famous for its food and rich gastronomical tradition. Parmigiano cheese and Prosciutto (Palma Ham) are from this area. Its...

May 2, 2011 - Parmigiano!

A long time dream was finally realized when I got to visit a Parmigiano cheese factory. We were met at our hotel at 8am and escorted to the factory, about 10 minutes away. They start production at 3am so we would be there to see them making that last batch. We had to cover our shoes and clothing with protective plastic-I got to skip the hat for obvious reasons. :-) There was a problem with the milk delivery so we couldn't see where they store the fresh milk overnight so the cream and milk separate. More cream is then added and the milk is...

May 1, 2011 - Evening in Parma

On Sunday afternoon, Eric and Arianna drove up from Pescara to pick me up (they live about 5 hours south of Milan). I had never met them before but some friends of mine arranged things for them to take care of me for the next two days and that they did. We drove south to Parma, about an hour from Milan and checked into our hotel. We took some time to walk around the beautiful Park Ducale there and also saw some of the beautiful buildings in town. We had a wonderful dinner that evening. We started first with a sparkling white wine, Prosecco,...

May 9, 2007 - Milan Stopover

The Madison Hotel is luxurious and only 200m from the station in Milan. I must admit, I have lost track of where I am periodically. It is four star and we are having a sabbatical before Rome and the Insight Tour. We had a bad night here, in spite of the exclusive room. There was a nightclub on the premises, and it was open until four am. The patrons made their noisy farewells outside our room, waking us. This was one of the problems with last minute bookings-there is always a reason the rooms have not been booked at full price. However,...

May 14, 2006 - Another Day on the Flat

The Po Valley is very industrialised and if it's not got a factory on it then the fertile land is used for farming. Every inch of the valley is used to produce something and is the Industrial heart of the country. Old Piacenza was beautiful. The outskirts are like any other modern city but the center is wonderful. It's been hot the last few days and it's starting to take its toll. I was grateful when I arrived in the shaded walk ways of Cremona, the home of the violin and it's most maker Stradivarias.If I thought Piacenza was beautiful then...