Parma, a feast of flavors

Parma is a beautiful city located in the historic region of Emilia-Romagna. This wonderful urbanistic jewel is not only famous for his ancient buildings, his musical tradition, his amazing political importance during the medieval age and for his artistic treasures but also for his spectacular food! Founded in 183 B.C. from the Romans, Parma immediately became an important center of reference for the whole surrounding plain: the construction of the Via Emilia (187 BC) favored a profound and rapid development of agriculture and sheep breeding throughout the surrounding territory.

In 569 the city was conquered by the Lombards and became the seat of the Duchy. Soon the Parma area of ​​the Via Francigena was born. Castles and hospices rose more and more frequently to ensure hospitality and assistance to pilgrims and travelers.

Progressively the bishops assumed temporal power and Parma gave two antipopes - Honorius II and Clement III - to the conflict between religious and political power over the investiture. The constitution of the Municipality, around 1140, marked the beginning of the rebirth of the city after the period of early medieval disintegration.

The internal conflicts, which saw opposition to the Ghibelline dominance, the filopapal families (Sanvitale, Rossi, Lupi) culminated in the clash of 1248 and the defeat of Emperor Federico II. Parma was conquered by the Visconti to go to the Sforza (1440-1500), who dominated through the great noble families: the Pallavicino, the Rossi, the Sanvitale, the Da Correggio.

From 1500 to 1521 the city passed to the French, then to the Church. In 1545 Pope Paul III, in order to create a buffer state between the state of the Church and the Spanish power in Lombardy, assigned the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza to his son Pier Luigi D'Farnese. Since then, thanks also to their financial and patrimonial availability, the Farnese reigned uncontested for two centuries. The city became a great capital, rich in monuments and works of art.

With the extinction of the Farnese family (1731), the Duchy passed to Charles of Spain, son of Elisabetta Farnese and of Filippo V, and thanks to the peace of Aachen (1748), it added to its territories a good part of the lower Reggio.

The Spanish influence then passed to the French one: the reformist politics of this dynasty, strong in the Enlightenment culture, allowed the Duchy to recover. After 1759 the decisive action of the Prime Minister Guillaume du Tillot imposed a modern state, founded on the organization civil society and on the industrial economy.

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 assigned the duchy to Maria Luigia of Austria, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, who governed from 1816 to 1847 starting an absolute state policy with ministers of foreign origin. The prestige of the "beloved sovereign" was such that the Duchy did not suffer from the first Risorgimento motions. In 1847, at the death of Maria Luigia, the Duchy returned to the Bourbons. The plebiscite of 1860 decided to annex it to Piedmont and then to the Kingdom of Italy. With the establishment of the unitary state, Parma was strongly affected by the declassification from state capital to a simple provincial capital, with a serious social and economic crisis.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Parma saw the spread of the trade union and socialist organizations and the increasingly strong opposition to the fascist regime that was affirming itself in Italy. This confrontation experienced its most dramatic moment in August 1922, when Italo Balbo tried to enter the popular district of the Oltretorrente in Parma. The citizens organized themselves and managed to repel the squads with the famous barricades. During the Second World War, the massive damage caused by the bombing and the numerous clashes caused damage to the local economy. The reconstruction and economic development of the post-war period gave new impetus to Parma, which began to establish itself in the food industry and to regain its position in the artistic and cultural world, thanks to the recovery of its heritage and the revival of its traditions.

The Duomo of Parma

All these centuries of history made Parma a city with important monuments, several churches not to be missed and excellent museums.

Now i will list you some famous examples.

Piazza del Duomo in Parma is one of the most beautiful squares in Italy and perhaps in the world. In a harmonious and perfectly preserved, the Duomo, the Baptistery and the Bishop's Palace create a unique setting and tell a thousand years of history of this city. Another pride of the city is The Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista, a complex that is formed by the church, the convent and the Antica Spezieria di San Giovanni. The church has been frescoed in large part by Correggio, which has reached its peak in the decoration of the dome: with an extraordinary perspective game, the artist creates an imaginary open sky on whose clouds the apostles are laid with the figure of Christ at the center. The Farnese collection of Art was much richer than the current one, but the last descendant, who became King under the name of Charles of Bourbon, decided to transfer it to Naples. The current collection, however exceptional, is made up of paintings purchased in Tuscany from 1734 onwards, those returned home after the French dissolution, and, above all, those acquired by Maria Luigia of Austria, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza from 1816 to 1847. The Palazzo della Pilotta is a monumental complex whose construction was begun in 1583 by Ottavio Farnese who simply wanted to make it an appendix to the nearby Palazzo Ducale. The first part to be built was therefore a "Corridor" connecting to a courtyard where the Spanish soldiers often played at the "Pelota", hence the name.

Teatro Regio di Parma, one of the most beautiful theater in the world

In the same Pilotta complex there is a theater that has immediately become an example for the whole world. The Farnese Theater, built between 1616 and 1618 in the southern wing, served to the Duke Ranuccio I Farnese to celebrate the stop in Parma of Cosimo II d 'Medici. For the era in which it was built, the theater is an example of creativity and technique: the stage was mobile, the characters could be dropped from the other and there was an ingenious system for the scenic flooding of the cavea. Although it is not known as La Scala in Milan, the Phoenix in Venice, or the San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Regio in Parma has always been a temple of music in Italy and in the world.

Parma itself has for centuries been considered a "City of Music" and its fans are recognized as the most competent and demanding in the world. This was also the case on May 16, 1829, the day of the inauguration. It was certainly not the welcome expected by Maria Luigia of Habsburg, Napoleon's wife, who had commissioned the construction of it. Vincenzo Bellini, who brought the Zaira to the stage, was inundated with whistles. The book was inadequate, the music changed, the first postponed for too long. It was a real disaster. But These are just the most famous examples of what you could find during a walk in the city center of Parma.

Tortellini, Parmigiano, Mortadella emiliana, Prosciutto di Parma, Parma Milk and Egg made pasta; have you ever visited a place with so much delights to offer?

After have told about the history and the artistic heritage of Parma finally let's go to speak about i consider the most precious treasure that this city has preserved: the gastronomic one!

The Parmigiana cuisine, of ancient tradition, is the daughter of butter and cheese for which it is a fatty kitchen. It is also substantial, rich in flavors and aromas and including specialties that make it famous. The city is so linked to food that it is dedicated to six great museums: Parmigiano Reggiano, Pasta, Pomodoro, Vino, Salame di Felino and Prosciutto di Parma. I recommend to all those who will have the opportunity to visit the city to spend at least those dedicated to parmesan, ham and salami, the most typical products of the Parma area, which are told entirely by those who produce them giving you at the same time spectacular samples of the true jewels of this city of art.

The reason of the opening of these museum is that in the province of Parma and neighboring Reggio Emilia and Modena are today concentrated the main productions of typical cured meats, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, pasta and vegetable preserves of the Country. But it is Parma, by ancient tradition, to be the center and the undisputed "capital", with the presence of world-class gastronomic excellences. Since Roman times, the seasoned hams in the Parma area were sought after and appreciated in the capital of the empire; in the early Middle Ages the Benedictine monks had developed the production process of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, still used today.

In the nineteenth century, Parma developed the strongest food processing industry for tomatoes, thus favoring the specialization of the mechanical companies present in the territory and the installation of the largest Italian territorial network of railway gauge steam trams, capable, with its 177 kilometers of tracks, linking the main production sites to the capital city, the national railway network and the river port on the Po. In 1877 began its journey with a modest bakery shop La Barilla, today world leader in the industrial production of pasta and European of baked goods.

The twentieth century saw the birth in the capital of the Experimental Station of the Food Preserves, of the Conservation Exhibition, the forerunner of today's Cibus - the International Food Fair - and of the Consortia for the protection of typical products (Parmigiano, Prosciutto, Culatello).

To confirm this strong vocation, in 2003 Parma was chosen as the seat of EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority. Ending this article i would just like to suggest you to visit Parma and his wonders. You will find beautiful hotel in the city center with price not over 100E per night but you will be able to find cheaper accomodations in the suburbs around the city on in the local countryside also. In addition to food museums it would be almost impossible to select a few good places because this city is really full of these, so I will just list only some of those that I think represent the best value for money and offer the best parmesan food:

Ristorante Operaviva, Str. Giovanni Inzani, 15, 43100 Parma PR, Italia

Ristorante La Greppia, Str. G. Garibaldi, 39, 43121 Parma PR, Italia

Ristorante Angiol D'Or, Via Scutellari, 1, 43121 Parma PR, Italia

Pasta with Carbonara sauce seasoned in a local parmesan form

Enjoy your visit! See you soon..