Thursday 22 June 2023
Today we got on the road again and headed south from Parma into the foothills of the Appennines. I’ve got some kind of grotty cold or flu out of nowhere, so today was accomplished with only 60% energy and a sort of mental fog in between me and the world. Thanks to the lovely Italian countryside it was still a nice day.
Our first stop was Torrechiara, a very impressive and nearly perfect 15th century castle above a village. It looked so perfect from a distance that I had imagined it was probably restored to within an inch of its life and now home to apartments and maybe a conference centre. But no! Delighted to find that it is still basically an empty ruin with the original 16th century frescoes covering the walls and ceilings of many of the rooms. Lots of mad monsters, idyllic invented scenery and realistic paintings of birds (the dawn, noon and dusk ceilings were particularly atmospheric and wonderful). I have to quietly admit to preferring this content to the handful of oft-repeated religious themes that make up most Renaissance art.
From Torrechiara we drove up through the town Langhirao, the “home of Parma ham” where every other building is selling the stuff. I’m only exaggerating a tiny amount I swear! So. Much. Ham. It’s otherwise an unlovely town so we continued up the valley and apparently away from places that tourists are interested in. Corniglio was a sleepy little village with a castle in the middle (this one genuinely turned into apartments and town offices) and a nice little osteria where we found pasta for lunch.
Bosco was an equally sleepy village where we stopped and walked down to the local castle along a grassy trail in the woods, only to discover that this particular ruin really was pretty much utterly ruined. Having gazed at a big wall, we trekked back veeeeery sloooowly uphill through the 30+ degree heat.
Our final stop, Berceto, is more of town. Its castle was ruined and closed to visitors, looked like it had been closed for years. But the tiny streets of the town were photogenic enough for me, and after a wander around we stopped for gelato and then headed back to Parma. The car’s thermometer hit 35C as we got back to the city. Wow.
Dinner was our first success at something above traditional cooking. Called Cortex, it was a bistro that served us lovely snails and shiitake in a sweet-spicy nduja sauce with garlicky foam, charred lettuce with anchovy crumb and other delicious things. Very friendly service too.
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