Saturday July 3, 2010 Parma to Zibello
We had a nice relaxing morning although I woke up pretty early and uploaded all my photos from yesterday. No walk today and we had breakfast between 9 and 9:30.
Bruni and Simona
Had a great time with Bruno and Simona. We asked her to give us her recipe for Torta Fritta so there will definitely some work to determine which recipe is better. We also got a recipe from Alexandra yesterday. Borrowed a mallet from Bruno and was able to pound out the dented corner of Christine’s suitcase.
View from our room
Bruno gave us directions into Parma and some suggestions about what to see there. He also had some ideas for the Zibello area. Apparently you can rent bikes and tour prescribed routes and also some famous folks like Verdi live nearby. Should be fun.
Walk through Parma Centro
Not sure when we left but we followed Gary and Peggy into Parma and were parked in the underground parseggio well before noon.
In Parma we looked for the farmer’s market but did not find it right away. We walked past the Baptistery, but you have to pay to get in there.
The first sight we went into was the cathedral where we listened to an audio tour in English for one Euro and found there were several Carreggio’s there. Up front for another Euro you could have three different frescoes by Carreggio’s lit up one at a time. Very interesting actually.
We went into another church that had another Carravagio then wandered and found the Garibaldi statue. Gary liked it because he also had the initials GG. As we were wandering back to the car and sweating to death–it had to be in the 90s with 85-90% humidity–we did find the market but it turned out to be mostly cheap clothing stuff.
Onward to Zibello and La Bucca
We made it back to the car and began heading toward Zibello with Gary leading the way. We did not have a great map but by using the bracketing technique, it wasn’t too long before we found a sign pointing to Zibello. I think we were here not too long after 1:15.
Still wondering exactly what kind of a place this was going to be we found that it even had a blue directional sign and when we got there all the parking spaces across the road were full.
We were blown away with how great the place is. We had booked the blue and green rooms which are exactly the same except one is on the ground floor and the other is on the first floor. Apparently there is also a suite, the red room. We were greeted by Lucca who showed us the rooms. The only downside is that there is no internet. Maybe no internet in the entire town.
Pizza and Verdi in Bussetto
Peggy decided she wanted pizza and we agreed so Lucca told us we would have to drive to Bussetto several kilometers away. We found it in the main piazza at the Pizzaria Teatro near the main theatre and the statue of Verdi. It was delicious wood fired pizza, a great lunch.
Naps and World Cup Action
Once back at the place a little after three, we decided we all needed naps and we slept until a little after four. It was definitely a delicious sleep. Christine and I watched the first half of the quarterfinal game between Germany and Argentina and then Gary came down and sat on our chaise and we watched the second half. Germany dominated in every way and won 4-0. Argentina was not that bad really, Germany was just that good.
Bicycle Information and Planning
Gary and I decided to speak with Lucca about some of the details of what was happening in the area and this is when we found out that there may be no wi-fi anywhere near by. We did find out that the place to rent bikes is very close and we walked over there in the heat to check it out. What a miracle. To think that the bikes are so close and there are so many great places to ride nearby. Amazing. We found out that the bikes cost ten Euros per day. 15 Euro for two days. But certainly we have to get up early and ride in the morning because it will definitely be too hot by the afternoon.
Hanging Out and Dinner One at La Bucca
Gary and Peggy came down to our room and we watched the opening of the Tour de France in Rotterdam with a bottle of our Montalcino wine. We headed across the street to La Bucca at about 8:30.
We ate outside but it still was pretty hot and there were flies and even mosquitos. The food was excellent. We shared a plate of Culatello for an appetizer. Then we each had our own pasta. Gary had his with fresh porcinis, I had a button ravioii-like thing in a red sauce. Christine had a cylindrical crepe thing and Peggy had the pasta with Cullatello. The best part of the meal may have been the ice cream with the frutta del bosco.
After dinner we planned to tome back to the room and watch the second half of the Spain v. Paraguay World Cup quarter final, but of course, RAI 1 was not covering it. Apparently they only can cover one game per day. They wouldn’t want to deny the Italian people the right to watch badly dubbed American TV shows
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