Parma is the most concentrated Italian city per square kilometer of cultural and gastronomic significance, a statement that requires unpacking against the competition. Parma is the production capital of Prosciutto di Parma DOP (the most internationally recognized Italian cured meat, produced in the hills south of the city in a legally defined zone). It is in the heart of the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP production area (the largest cheese factories in the world are within 20 km). It was the home city of Giuseppe Verdi (born 1813 in Roncole di Busseto, 30 km from Parma. His connection to the city is so deep that the Parma opera audience is the most demanding and most knowledgeable in Italy, being booed at the Teatro Regio in Parma is the final career judgment that no Italian tenor wants). It has the Baptistery (1196-1307, the finest example of Italian Romanesque architecture in pink marble, by Benedetto Antelami) and the Camera di San Paolo (the room in the Benedictine convent where Correggio painted his first major fresco cycle, in 1519, before any of his more famous works).
All of this in a city of 196,000 inhabitants that the international tourist circuit hasn't discovered at the same intensity as Florence or Venice, which means that Parma's principal museum, the most significant food production in Europe, and one of the most architecturally extraordinary medieval baptisteries in Italy are visited by people who came specifically to see them rather than by the diffuse tourist crowd that overwhelms comparable objects in more famous cities.
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What to See and Eat in Parma
The Baptistery and the Cathedral
The Parma Baptistery (Piazza del Duomo, adjacent to the Cathedral) is the masterwork of Benedetto Antelami, the octagonal structure of pink Verona marble with three carved portal programs (the Months of the Year, the Life of the Baptist, and the Last Judgment), the interior with frescoes and the specific luminosity of the octagonal lantern that floods the space with diffused light. The adjacent Cathedral has the Correggio Assumption of the Virgin in the dome (1526-1530), the most radical perspective experiment in Italian dome fresco before Tiepolo, the Virgin ascending through a spiral of angels and light that makes the dome feel physically open to the sky. Both buildings are in the same square. Allow 2 hours.
Parma: tours & tickets
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The Camera di San Paolo (Via Melloni 3, next to the monastery of San Paolo) has Correggio's earliest major fresco commission (1519), the ceiling of the abbess's dining room, painted as an open pergola with garlands of fruit and putti (cherubs) peering over the edge, a mythological program celebrating Diana, with a specific quality of lightness and painterly grace that distinguishes Correggio from all his contemporaries. The room is small. Visits are controlled. The specific experience of this room is among the finest private Italian art encounters available.
The Parma Food Experience
The direct-sale options for the two principal Parma products: Prosciuttifici south of the city (in the hills between Langhirano and Lesignano de' Bagni, within the DOP production zone) offer factory visits with tasting and direct sale at production prices. Caseifici in the countryside south of Parma offer the same for Parmigiano Reggiano. Many are bookable through the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano (parmigiano-reggiano.it). The Mercato della Ghiaia (the covered market of Parma) has the widest selection of local products in the city center.
Q&A: Parma
How do I get to Parma?
By train: Parma is on the Milan-Bologna main line, from Milan approximately 1 hour (regional express or Intercity), from Bologna approximately 50 minutes. From Florence: change at Bologna, total approximately 1.5-2 hours. Parma's train station is a 10-minute walk from Piazza del Duomo. No need for a car within the city. A car is useful for visiting the prosciutto and Parmigiano producers in the hills south of the city.
What is the best food to buy in Parma to bring home?
A whole Prosciutto di Parma bone-in (the most dramatic take-home. Available at any prosciuttificio and shipped internationally by specialist shippers). A wedge of 30-month Parmigiano Reggiano from a caseificio (sealed for international travel, approved by EU/UK customs, check US regulations). Culatello di Zibello (the heart of the prosciutto, cured separately, even more delicate and more expensive than the standard ham, available at specialist Parma salumerie).
Internal Links
- Parma Food Museums: MUNUS and the Food Valley Circuit
- Parmigiano Reggiano: The Complete Guide
- Modena Near Parma: The Double Emilian Day
- Teatro Regio Parma: The Most Demanding Opera Audience
- Verdi and Parma: The Musical Connection
- Emilian Pasta: Parma in the Food Valley
- Milan-Bologna Rail: Parma as a Stop
