Parma or Ferrara?
 

I'm planning a trip to Northern Italy, the rest of my trip is planned. Seeking opinions on visiting either Ferrara or Parma, only have time for one. We love art, architecture, frescoes, churches and more art!!!!!

Thanks in advance!

www.parmaitaly.it/home.html
www.lucca.info even prettier

my favs... good food beautiful town centres...

Both Parma and Ferrara have important art and architecture, as you'll most probably know from your guidebooks. So if the question is about which of them is the nicer town, Parma is the clear winner. I always failed to fall in love with Ferrara, it's kind of sleepy. Parma is not exactly a night life heaven either, but a flawlessly elegant town that feels much more metropolitan than it actually is just because it has so much urban flair. If I had to choose, I'd also rank the sights of Parma higher than those of Ferrara; the baptistery in particular is a true miracle.

Basil,

I have not visited Ferrara (it is on my list to see) but I currently live in Parma and love it. From my apartment, i have a view of the beautiful baptistry Franco mentioned and i never tire of looking at it. Parma is a beautiful, peaceful small city with plenty to do but relaxed all the same. As Franco mentioned, it is not known for it's nightlife but there are beautiful churches and museums and plenty of wonderful food and food related activities. Being the home of Verdi, there is an active opera house as well. I would not visit on a Monday though-- duomo and baptistery are open but museums are closed. The National Gallery is pleasant and has good examples of Correggio and Parmigianino. There is one work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Also, there are descriptions in English which helps! The ticket includes a visit to the Farnese Theater which you can walk through on your way to the National Gallery. It is a wooden theater (destroyed during WW II but completely restored) that they say was the first to use moveable sets . The duomo is beautiful and has a dome decorated by Correggio. There are light boxes into which you insert a euro and the dome is lighted and you can snap a good photo (a different light box lights the rest of the duomo). I am going to the Chamber of St. Paul on Wed. of this week so I'll let you know how that is! The only thing I haven't liked is the puppet museum which I found a bit creepy. But if you are interested in marionettes, you might like it.

The tourist office is great. I have stopped by several times and there has always been someone fluent in Enlish and their handouts are also in English. You can also visit the city's website at www.turismo.comune.parma.it and click on the British flag for English and you can get lots of information. Tourist office address is Via Melloni 1/A. The post office is also on that street and is a good place to mail post cards if you like. You can get postcards anywhere of course but I like the little shop attached to the duomo. The city offers bike rental for .90/hour. If you decide on Parma and have more questions, feel free to ask!

ciaojulie

your post was very helpful in my trip planning for July; I am wondering if my family and I will be able to have our own food tour (cheese, prosciotto and balsamic vinegar) instead of signing up for a group tour

any and all information welcome

thank you fellow fodorites

Franco and ciaojulie, thanks for the great info and impressions of Parma. We will be in Bologna in May and had selected Parma over Ferrara as a day trip (we'll stop in Ferrara en route to Padua).

Basil/lrtayloe, hope you have great trips!

Regarding food tours, you can sign up with a private company or try to make the arrangements yourself. I have not done this yet but I plan to as the weather warms up so I have already gathered the information on what to do. Just keep in mind that I don't know what the tours are actually like! If I go, I will post a trip report.

First useful emails are:
www.turismo.comune.parma.it for Parma information, click on British flag for website in English
http://www.emiliaromagnaturismo.it/en for Emilia-Romagna tourist info

Keep in mind that you should schedule at least several weeks in advance for English speaking tour.

CHEESE TOURS:
Looks like there are three options: 1.arrange a tour with a private company, 2.arrange a tour through the cheese consortium, 3.arrange a tour directly with the factory. The handout from the tourist office lists 2 private tour companies: Food VAlley Travel and Leisure and Parma Incoming. I have also seen a third company mentioned called Parma Golosa. Trip Advisor is a good website to check reviews of tours, etc. The private companies give tours that include prosciutto, Parmesan and balsamic vinegar production. I have also seen some people on the forum talk of a guide out of Bologna that gives wonderful tours. Here is the link about that group from Trip Advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...a_Romagna.html

Here is a link to the Parma website that has a cheese tour "fact sheet":
http://turismo.comune.parma.it/tport...DEX=4&TOTSEL=5

If you schedule through the cheese consortium, here is the overview: tours are Monday through Friday, must be made weeks in advance, can be arranged in English, tour lasts 2 hours, must be at the cheese factory at 8am, tour is free. Contact info for consortium:
Telephone: +39 0521292700
Fax: +39 0521293441
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.parmigiano-reggiano.it

If you want another day or time, you either have to go with a private company or contact cheese producer directly. The link above for the cheese tour fact sheet lists several cheese producers and their contact information so I will not detail it here. It really is a useful handout with a lot of good information. As I have mentioned before, Parma's tourist office has always been very helpful and has fluent speakers of English. Their email is [email protected]. I have always stopped by the office instead of emailing but give email a try if you have questions.

The cheese factories are outside of Parma and you would need to travel there by car or bus. The dispatcher for the taxi company here doesn't speak English and I have had limited success with him. When I don't understand something, he yells : HOLD THE LINE, MERRY CHRISTMAS! And puts me on hold. Ha ha, must be all of his English. In all fairness, my Italian is not much better. I'm sure your hotel staff could help you if necessary. The cheese tour fact sheet lists the bus numbers you would need to take if you schedule directly with one of the producers. Ok, that is quite a dump of information so i will take a break and list info for prosciutto tours in another post. Don't worry, I have less information about prosciutto tours...

PROSCUITTO TOURS:
I do not think there is a consortium of prosciutto producers so to schedule a tour, you would need to go with one of the private tour companies or contact the prosciutto factory directly. There is a listing of prosciutto factories on Parma's website. Here is the link: http://turismo.comune.parma.it/tport...0producers.doc

This sheet gives contact info, if guided tour is available, languages spoken, etc. These factories are also outside of Parma so you would need a car or to go by bus. An interesting day might be to combine a visit to a prosciutto factory in the community of Langhirano with a trip to the castle of Torrechiara which is nearby. The castle has music festivals on weekends during the summer, mostly in July. Not popular music but classical or medieval, etc.

As promised, much shorter than cheese tour info!

I do not have info on touring balsamic vinegar factories. Modena is home to balsamic vinegar so maybe you can find it on their community's website or on the Emilia-Romangna website. I haven't researched it.

If any of you go on a tour, please post a trip report for the rest of us. Best of luck with your planning!

Here is the link for the cheese consortium's website that tells how to go about setting up a cheese tour with the consortium:

http://www.parmigianoreggiano.com/wh...1/default.aspx

Ok, I can't get the links for the cheese tour fact sheet and the prosciutto factories to work. So, just go to www.turismo.comune.parma.it, click on British flag forEnglish, look in the left hand column under the Flavours heading and click on Food and Wine Factories. On the Food and Wine page, look in the right column entitled Choose an Item and click on Parma Visits to the Cheese Factories.

If you want the prosciutto tour info, from the Food and Wine Factories page, click on the blue text that says Ham factories.

Sorry about that!

I hope you all enjoy your visits to Parma. I will try to help if you have any additional questions.