The Road Trip: Leg 11 (to Rome)

Parma was a bit dull; there was lots of Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, etc. but not much else. There were some nice pedestrian areas, a few landmarks that we didn't particularly check out, a bit of shopping, and some restaurants. Not much different from any other town, and since we were a bit over meat and cheese, the city didn't speak to us. We had a reasonable lunch (featuring Lambrusco risotto, which was bright purple and tasty, and veal cheeks with a balsamic reduction, which were quite sweet, but tender) after walking around more of the city for much of the day, but the highlight was finding the first non-Spanish cherries of the season, and some wild, Sicilian strawberries. 

We left about 5:00 in order to get to Rome by 7:30, to meet up with a high school friend of Julianna's, Valentina. She's got a lovely place in the north of Rome, and treated us with royal hospitality. We opened the wine from Heidi (see two posts ago), which was lovely with the Bitto and other cheeses we bought in Morbegno (see last post), and had a wonderful evening with Valentina and her boyfriend, Jean-Paulo.



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