In Parma, even the air itself seems cultured. It smells of the citrus-laced elegance of Acqua di Parma, and, on certain nights, it carries the distant, dramatic swell of a Verdi aria. This is the heart of Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s “Food Valley,” but it is also a city of profound art, music, and a refined, unhurried pace of life that defines the Italian concept of l’arte di vivere—the art of living.
This is not the chaotic grandeur of Rome or the Renaissance wonderland of Florence. Parma’s appeal is more subtle. It is a city that, as local restaurateur Virgilio Buratti Zanchi puts it, “allows you to enjoy the advantages of a big city—university, work, cinema, theater, gastronomy—while enjoying the benefits of a small town.”
