We had a leisurely morning and said our goodbyes to Luca, Joy and the boys. Although the boys have mostly been shy around us, they still wanted to come in the van to take us to the train station. There is only a regional train from Sarzana to Parma, so it will take us a little over 2 hours. I am writing on the train at the moment. These trains are still comfy and we have two pairs of seats facing each other, but no table, so we can't play cards, which is too bad. The knees are not very happy with me.
We arrived in Parma mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and it was POURING. Apparently Saturday afternoon which means everything is closed. It stopped raining eventually and we went out looking for sustenance. After 20 minutes of walking around, we finally found someplace open for lunch. A tiny pizza restaurant, and the guy spinning the pizza dough did something crazy to stretch it out that I had never seen before--he didn't toss it, just sort of spun it between his hands. Then he twirled the pizza peel (which had a very long handle) like it was a baton, clearly putting on a show for us. Finn commented "it's like he's in a circus, not just making us pizza." And the pizza was terrific.
Parma definitely feels like less of a tourist town, though. It feels very Italian, not as many people speaking English, or knowing at a glance that we are American and speaking English to us. This has its good and bad points! There are a few churches (everyone except Lane is getting super tired of looking at amazing churches), a small basilica and campanile (I think the baptistry, all in pink marble and looking like a tiny Tower of Pisa is the most interesting).
We are staying at the Hotel Button, which sounds cute but is nothing special. We had hoped to do a tour of food factories here--Parma ham, Reggio Emilia Parmesan cheese, and Modena balsamic vinegar. Sadly, we can't find any kind of tour for under $500 (for a half-day tour), and that just seems outrageous. That's the reason we came here, though, so it's disappointing.. There are no do-it-yourself options, and a limited number of other things to do in Parma, but we will figure it out.
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