MAY 18 – PARMA

We spent the day exploring the area around our hotel. The reasons it is hard to drive a car in the area made it fun being a pedestrian / tourist. There are many shops, cafes, restaurants, pastry shops, gelato shops, museums and people to watch among the narrow streets and alleys. While the number of bikes doesn’t approach those of Amsterdam or Copenhagen, there were a multitude of bikes, ridden by all ages, doing all sorts of things, including dialing their cell phones + lighting cigarettes. 

We went to the post office to get some stamps. It was located in an old, somewhat nondescript looking stone building, but what we found inside was a lit opaque glass ceiling and murals painted on the walls over the postal windows. 

We saw this colorful quilt on a wall.

This large park was not far from the hotel

The nearby duomo had a ceiling and walls that had very colorful murals that had enough windows to bring the colors alive.

Our last dinner in Parma – we ate and drank too much to be able to partake of dessert.