Emily and Paul here, and after months and weeks of preparation, it has all come together and we are finally here in Italia!
Less than a week ago, THIS was our reality:
A room in disarray; full of random things to bring, papers to file before we left, etc. It took a crazy all-nighter to get in order - yes that's right we didn't sleep the night before the airport shuttle picked us up at 4:30am last Sunday!
Saturday had been started with us still in a tequila daze from the previous night's going-away festivities at CASA in downtown LA...thanks to all our friends who came! We plunged into a frantic attempt to finish up a few details at work, pack, and clean/organize our townhouse. We even managed to squeeze in a fantastic dinner with our friends Claudia and Pete that was lovingly prepared by Claudia and her mom...thank you guys SOOOO much!
By the time the shuttle came, we were ready, though delirious. At about 4:15 we moved all of the packed luggage into one place in the garage and then panicked. This was way too much stuff. We're talking about no less than 7 pieces of luggage here...we are moving for quite a while after all, and it was tough to know what we'd need. But 7 pieces? It was too much, and we didn't realize it until we saw it all together. To give you an idea, here's what it looked like:
Of course we had no idea how to negotiate the airport/train/taxi transition that we would need to get from Milan to Parma with this much stuff. Emily made friends with her neighbor across the plane aisle, a stylish Milanese woman, and asked for some advice. After considering our situation, consulting with more Italians on her other side, criticizing with us the quality of chicken Parmesan served on the plane, and giving some tips on making a nice risotto, she gave us her recommendation - Avis rent-a-car.
Paul was a little concerned about jumping directly from the plane onto an Italian autostrada in his jetlagged state, but it was our best option so he decided to go with it. Anyway, after our first cappuccino in the Milanese airport, we were feeling pretty good!
Renting a car wasn’t hard at all, and was actually a pretty good deal. It was such a relief to no longer have to wheel those bags around after 2 nights with no sleep...and Paul found that the rumors of crazy Italian driving didn't seem true, although it could be because his is very similar, hahaha. As a good omen, we even saw a Ventura truck on the way to Parma:
And a rickety truck carrying a Ferrari...we're definitely in Italy now....
On the way to Parma we stopped at a gas station along the highway where we enjoyed fresh squeezed blood orange juice served in real glasses and a freshly toasted panini. Since when can you find a decent snack at a gas station? Better than 7-Eleven hot dogs and Slurpees to say the least....
After driving around Parma for an hour (some advice - don't ever try to find a place in Italy by giving the name of the nearest piazza, there are a million of them. Per town.), we finally found our apartment for March and our new landlords were patiently waiting for us. They even had a nice bowl of fruit and some groceries as a welcome gift.
We spent the rest of the day trying to return the rental car and then wandering around dazed and later enjoying an aperitivo at a local bar – which according to Italian custom offered nice little free snacks along with the drinks!
Surprisingly, we had a really hard time finding a restaurant for dinner. As we learned, dinner doesn’t start until 7, many places are closed on Mondays, and there aren't a ton of places to choose from. We would walk 10 blocks and not see a single restaurant, meanwhile passing dozens of elegant bars with assortments of coffee, pastries, sandwiches, and drinks. Exhausted from the journey, we finally just gave up and had a pizza. It was excellent – it had locally made ham (prosciutto cotto) and mushrooms (funghi), and was just 5 euro.
It had been quite a 48 hours, and we retired to our new home to collapse.....
Waking up the next day we were greeted with a charming and rustic view from our bedroom:
And after some sleep we felt like new people. Despite the looming list of settling-in things to do, we decided to relax a little and just spend the day soaking in Parma. It was sunny and crisp and it seemed like the whole city was out on bikes and on foot. And happily it seems we don't stand out like sore thumbs, as we were promptly asked for directions by two Italians!
The illusion ended as soon as we started talking, of course. Emily's Italian is actually pretty good though, even if the accent isn't perfect she understands a lot and in general can communicate very well.
Paul fears the day he has to go somewhere without her.
Our neighborhood is nice, a small quirk though is that it seems to be a hub for Parma's community of African immigrants, who sometimes get in animated streetside arguments/discussions that are a little disconcerting. We're hoping that when the uprising they're apparently planning happens, they spare our street ;)
On our second day we walked right by some sort of immigrant labor protest; Paul thought briefly about joining, as he will no doubt have similar difficulty getting a job, but unfortunately left his megaphone at home.
We went back to a restaurant we spotted the day before that had been closed and had a nice lunch of some of the specialties from the region: salumi and torta fritta, tortellini in brodo, cinghiale (wild boar) and polenta, spinaci parmigiani, accompanied by house vino, and espresso. We loved the lunch, but ultimately can’t do that very often. It was 50 euro, or about 75 dollars!
So we need and want to start cooking. It seems like maybe eating out is really for a special occasion here, as not that many people seem to be doing it regularly, other than having a snack or a pizza. At least that's what we are guessing – it's difficult to say after just a few days here. Despite the lack of restaurants, there are many specialty food shops selling produce, meat, fish, homemade pasta, bread, sweets, etc.
Soon we should be ready to join the Italians for shopping for quality ingredients to cook at home.
So, ciao for now, but more to come from this beautiful city soon!
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