The city of Parma, in the heart of the Emilia region, boasts a historical and cultural past of great value to the point where in the 1600's it was called "Italy's Athens".It was the capital of the duchy at the time of the great dynasties of the Farnese, of the Borboni and of Maria Luigia d'Austria's kingdom (Napoleon's second wife); the prestigious University and the Institutes of culture still maintain the city's culture tradition alive today.
Parma has also seen the birth of some illustrious artists, and others have stayed and worked there. Among the many: painters Correggio and Parmigianino, orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini, the great composer Giuseppe Verdi, French writer Stendhal (real name Henri Beyle) who set his novel "Certosa di Parma" there.
Travelling through the city means journeying through an itinerary suspended between art and history, music and food: nutrition for the body and mind.
The Battistero, in the medieval Duomo square, is splendid, the historical apothecary in the back of the Benedictine monastery of San Giovanni is charming: an antique drugstore founded in 1200 and restored to allow the public to admire the ancient alembics and instruments used at the time.
The Teatro Regio is another pearl of the city known throughout the world. The public that attends it is considered among the most competent and demanding in assessing the artists that perform there.
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