MILAN (Sat 20 June)

We woke to thunder and heavy rain this morning, although we can’t complain, we haven’t had any rain since Florence. Went downstairs for breakfast, a simple but satisfying affair. We have noticed that the less you pay for a room, the more likely it is that they will include breakfast. Go figure.

Our first stop today was Parma (as in the ham) for lunch. It was pretty uneventful getting there as it rained most of the way and down to about 17 degrees C, over 20 degrees less than what we have been having so it is positively chilly. But by the time we got to Parma it was starting to clear.

We weren’t intending to stop here long, but we ended up mooching around for about three hours. It is a very cool place. It was siesta time when we first got there so most things were shut and we were greeted with old walls of different colours, punctuated with shutters in various states of disrepair. It seemed to have that old world charm, and was able to pull that look off quite well. It wasn’t long however before the doors started opening and people emerged.

We found that the city is about to start some kind of festival, so they were setting up a huge stage in the middle of the monastery. Fantastic setting, and seemed like it was going to be a big affair. Around the corner was the cathedral, which had a service in progress and TV cameras in attendance, so we didn’t get to have a proper look around inside (we didn’t have the rest of the day to wait for the full service to finish). What we did see was fantastic. Huge high roof, lots of gold, glitter, artwork, and candles. The whole alter and cupola is a real masterpiece.

We walked on further and found ourselves in a park … yes a real park, with gravel paths and real trees. And we have blue sky again now, so we get to see it at its best. We were talking to someone recently from Melbourne and we were commenting that of all the places that any of us had been to, the thing we missed was the parks. Well we found one. An Italian city with a park, and it gets well used too. We wandered over towards a huge building thinking it might be a museum, only to find when we got there that it was the Carabinieri (of course). They seem to nab the best spots in town. In the middle of the park is a large pond with the usual ducks, geese, extra large carp, that you would expect. What we didn’t expect were the turtles swimming around in there too.

All too soon it was time to move on. From our observations, Parma is a great city and really deserved more time, but Milan was calling. We were making good time towards Milan when midstride we were thwarted. Driving merrily through another town with no name (they aren’t always good at signage in these places), we were directed by GPS Jenny to cross a bridge that was closed with roadworks. We have struck this a few times before, and there is no warning or detour signs. But every direction we tried to take GPS Jenny was determined that we should cross that bridge and redirected us back to it. Somehow we finally managed to extract ourselves from the grasp of that town and made it to our hotel, just before he gave our room away to someone else. So here we are in Milan, with a bed to sleep in. Today is a good day.