One of the joys of travelling - and not having a planned detailed itinerary - is that when you wake up in the morning you have no idea what the day will bring. Today was one of those days: the only preparation we'd done was to last night book somewhere to stay in Parma and we had some vague idea about going to the mountains and seeing some castles. Not exactly precise planning!
First we needed transport so we collected a car from the car hire place: a Fiat Panda this time. Not as cute as the Fiat 500 but it does have a bit more space.
Then we headed for the general direction of Parma: chosen not because of the ham, or the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, but because it seemed to be in the middle of an interesting part of the country: the Apennines mountain range.
So we headed off and saw the 'real' Italy as we passed through lots of small towns not on the tourist trail, each with their own Castello (castle/fortress) in various states of repair. We realised we were following the Francigena trail which was originally a religious pilgrimage and is now a walking trail running the length of a long green valley. A few intrepid backpacking walkers with walking poles , floppy hats and shorts (and in the later years of their lives) were spotted, heading off with very determined looks on their faces and walking very fast. We felt exhausted watching them go.
Meanwhile we had stopped to buy tissues and cough lollies: a boring detail I know, but the experience was a challenge in a town where there was limited English and a confusing array of options for buying these items. The pharmacy was impossible to find and the easily available option was a 'nature' health shop which was like the gift section of our chemists, and another shop that did sell tissues and cosmetics and washing powder but also dog food?! A peruse of the local supermarket resulted in purchasing tissues (hooray!) and the ingredients for lunch - salami, cheese, fresh pesto, bread etc. So, minus the cough lollies for Ewan, we set off again.
We stopped to admire an ancient church built with local rock in the early 1300s. Still in remarkable condition and with a many flowered cemetery complete with crematorium and family crypts.
Finally we came to Pontremoli, a small town nestled in a valley with two rivers and towering mountains on either side. We spotted a rock fortress sitting up high overlooking the town, and were determined to actually visit it as we had great trouble working out how to get to some of the ones we had sailed past. After a few circuits trying to find the access point and a carpark we eventually, with the help of GPS Gloria found ourselves parked outside the church at the bottom of the hill.
The most delightful discovery of the day was that there was a rabbit warren of tiny alleyways and houses all built with the local rock in medieval times. The houses have been well looked after over many generations and it was really beautiful. We staggered to the top only to find that the Castle was closed until 3pm, an hour away. The only other people there were a couple from Woodend! So after a chat, back down the hill we went and ate our picnic lunch on the bench outside the church much to the amusement of some of the locals - in particular a couple of nonnas in red cardigans who chatted away, and I'm sure the word tourist was mentioned somewhere. They were probably horrified to see us eating our panini (sandwiches) next to their church!
Much to the horror of Ewan's aching knees we climbed up to the top again ( at least one gelatos worth of exercise I was sure!). Then we realised that this 12th Century fortress castle - the Piagnaro castle - also contained a small museum displaying stele from as far back as the 5-6th Century BC.
I can hear the cogs turning as you try to work out what in the hell a stele is. It's a flat stone carved and shaped in the image of a person and placed upright in the ground. The ones we saw were thought to signify important people, but, as they were created in the late Bronze Age, are very primitive. No photos were allowed so I have no way of showing you but they are particularly delightful because they have a smiling carved face. Many were destroyed by the Christians eventually because they were considered pagan.
As we are such intrepid travellers we chose the mountainous route to Parma, taking twice as long as the A1, but very picturesque. However it did involve climbing endless narrow mountainous roads zigzagging our way to the top and then a long plateau before slowly climbing down. Despite signs warning us about deer or cows or both (!) we saw neither. We did see lots of chestnut trees with HUGE chestnuts on them just starting to turn golden as it 's autumn.
We finally reached Parma which is a huge commercial town but has a lovely old centre. headed there for dinner and rewarded ourselves with a gelato from a very traditional gelateria suggested by a couple of San Franciscans we met at dinner - delicious end to a fascinating day.
Saturday 28th September: From the sublime to the ridiculous...........
Time to consult the guidebook as, apart from Parma ham ( prosciutto we would call it) and parmesan cheese, we had no idea about Parma. We set off early for the Duomo and Battistero. If you find the oldest Duomo you usually are in the most historical part of town. There were two things notable here. One was that they were built from an unusual pink stone and the other that the dome of the ceiling was painted by Correggio.
I have decided that he is my favourite painter as his people actually portray real emotions and look like real people. After seeing many churches with triptychs and frescoes of people looking stony faced and emotionless his paintings are a joy. He also had a sense of humour: in this dome he had painted a person who looked as if they were going to fall out of the sky and fall into the church!
We saw some more of his paintings in the National Gallery which we visited next at the Palazzo Della Pilotta. We entered a door marked Teatro Farinese to find a fabulous wooden theatre built in the late 1500s. It was really large and had a proper stage and rows of seat behind arches all constructed from wood. It had been rebuilt post WWII when it was bombed but was really stunning!
Then we went shopping: separately! Ewan is such a dawdler when it comes to shopping I can't stand it. In the end he had more success than I as he replaced his almost dead sandals and - you will be surprised !!!! - he went to a few technology shops to buy a new speaker to attach to his phone in the car. It would be true to say that his purchase of a similar item at the market had resulted in a speaker that played all components of a track EXCEPT for the lead vocals! That one is now going in the bin!
We had a wander around the local park before deciding to go for a drive. But what should we see in the Park but cyclists competing in a Made In Italy cycle race, many of them looking as if they were on a par with the Sunday cycle group ( interpret that in any way you like!!).
We headed off for Reggiano Emilia in the area where the famous Parmagiano Reggiana is made. We had missed all of the cheese making experiences as apparently they occur early in the morning if you want to see the whole process. When we stopped for an espresso we discovered ( or was this the plan all along?!) that we were close to the Ferrari factory and Museum. High on my list of historical sights I can tell you.
As a non petrol head I will leave the description about Ferrari to Ewan.
But I have two things to say about it:
1. Why is it that it costs more to get into this Museum than any of the ancient historical sights and museums we have visited??!!
2. It is possible to overdose on the colour red ( see photos!).
I am off to the UK for the International Association for Youth Mental Health conference in Brighton today for a few days so Ewan has been entrusted with doing the blog as he is heading for the Lakes.
your correspondent signing off for now,
Dianne
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