TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

The Baptistry (the rose pink building) and the tower of the Parma Cathedral just around the corner. You know you are in Parma when retail clothing stores sell and hang (Parma) ham beside their clothing and shoe products =) I have been wanting to visit the foodie capital region of Italy – Emilia Romagna for a long time already. I knew that KLM flies direct to Bologna from Amsterdam which is handy so I made it happen in spring last year. I think it’s a good thing to visit Italy once a year, just for the food and the amazing architecture. Together with Bologna, I visited the foodie cities of Parma and Modena as well. I even managed to swing by to San Marino, one of the smallest states in the world! A DAY IN PARMA My visit to Parma was quick though. I spent an afternoon until the evening in the city. I had no real plans but to walk around and enjoy the Dolce Vita atmosphere , sightsee and gaze at the medieval architecture and just really soak in the Italian culture and rel...

One of the special things about Italy that make me love about the country is the tradition of aperitivo, which is by the way practised mostly in the northern part of Italy. My aperitivo at Caffe Cavour in Parma. I have a few reasons why I love this Italian happy hour and I’ll tell you why. When I was in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy last year, where I stayed in a fabulous B&B country mansion set on a hill with a fantastic view in a small village just outside Bologna, I managed to visit nearby cities such as Modena and Parma. Just their names are enough to make foodies salivate, haha. In Parma, I planned to eat and have dinner but it did not turn out the way I had in mind. Early evening in Parma on the shopping street near Gran Caffe Cavour....drizzles, what was left of the rain. Late in the afternoon it began raining in the city. If there is anything a city visitor — tourist, the traveller would hate to happen, that would have to be bad weather. Rain. L...