It was beautiful this morning when we left Bellagio, but now dark clouds are forming overhead. I think I felt a raindrop. We’re on our way from Bellagio to Santa Marguerita Ligure by way of Parma. We didn’t know it at the time, but we’d be getting to Parma the hard way.
Back on the Autostrada
As noted last time, we stopped at an Autogrill somewhere between Milan and Parma. We’re traveling on the Autostrada A1, heading south. If we stayed on the A1 and kept going past Parma, we could go to Bologna, Rome, and then all the way to Naples
It started to rain, but we didn’t care. We enjoyed cruising along, seeing the sights, and listening to the radio. We had tuned to a station that played Italian pop songs mixed in with American oldies.
Parma is in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. There’s a lot going on in Emilia-Romagna – a lot of industry and a lot of agriculture. Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati have factories here. Just about anything Italian that you can eat is produced here. We passed a huge Barilla pasta factory. It’s the largest pasta factory in the world.
We reached the Parma exit and left the A1, as directed by the GPS. You have to pay when you leave the Autostrada. We paid, then faced a choice of several exits, all at once. They were packed too tight for the GPS to deal with. Of course, none of the signs said anything simple like, “Parma – This Way.”
So Close and yet, So Far
There was no way to pull over and figure things out. We had to commit. We made a choice. It was the wrong choice. The next thing we knew, we were on the A1 again, heading back the way we came. In the rain. And it’s a long way between exits on the Autostrada. Mamma mia.
We passed the Barilla pasta factory again, this time going in the opposite direction. That was mildly annoying. We finally came to an exit. We got off again, paid again, and very carefully got on again, this time heading back in the original direction.
I know I already mentioned this, but it really is a long way between exits on the Autostrada. Especially when you’re going back and forth down the same stretch of road. There’s that Barilla pasta factory again. Don’t need to see that anymore. I’m DONE seeing that Barilla factory!
We finally made it to the Parma exit, paid for the third time, and made the right choice this time. It had stopped raining and things were looking up, but we were getting seriously hungry by now.
Central Parma
Parma is a college town. The University of Parma is one of the first universities anywhere, having been established something like 900 years ago. By the looks of things, it’s still going strong, because students were walking around everywhere.
Before we left Bellagio, we had plugged the address of a restaurant in central Parma into the GPS. It had guided us into the heart of downtown, but now it directed us to turn down a tiny side-street. The street was so small, it looked like our car might not fit. I chickened out. We’d have to go around the block and take another look.
Not only was that street small, it looked exactly like the kind of place that might be a restricted area. I’d read about the dangers of driving in restricted areas, especially in Italy. They’ve installed numerous cameras to catch unsuspecting violators.
The symbol for a restricted area is a red circle on a white background. Guide books explain the warnings and show pictures of the signs. We were on the look-out for them. Still, with all of the chaos around, it’d be easy to miss one.
Zona Traffico Limitato?
We made another pass to have a look at the little side-street. We didn’t see any “restricted area” signs, but I decided to not turn into that narrow little street anyway. We’d go around the block and take one more look instead.
In this part of town, we couldn’t just go around the block. We had to go down about a quarter of a mile before turning. There was a lot of traffic, a lot of bicyclists, and a lot of pedestrians. Finally, we made it back to the little street the GPS had been telling us to turn on.
This time, we slowed way down as we approached. Boy, that street was really tiny. I wasn’t sure if it was even a street. I chickened out again. We aborted our plan to go to the restaurant we’d selected.
By this time, we were really hungry. Breakfast this morning in Bellagio was a distant memory. We parked the car in the first spot we could find. From there we could walk toward Parma’s main piazza, where there was sure to be restaurants.
We got out and started walking toward the piazza. At least, I thought we were walking toward the piazza. We were in an interesting neighborhood. Two-story buildings lined narrow streets. They looked like very old buildings that had been nicely restored and upgraded.
Half a block down one of these streets, we saw what appeared to be some tables, chairs and a few umbrellas on the sidewalk. Could it possibly be someplace to get something to eat? Please be someplace to get something to eat! To be continued…
To be continued…
Featured Image, Credit: winefoodemiliaromagna
