Visit to Parma

Jessie and Lindsey
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The second weekend we were on the farm, we decided to head out to the nearest big town, Parma, for the weekend.  We worked saturday morning, and then took the train with the other wwoofer Lindsey to Parma which took about an hour.  When we arrived it was like heaven.  We were in a real city with stores and restaurants and parks, though not so many people because everyone was away to the beach because of the horrible heat.  On our first evening there we walked around the city and got some really good gelato that was sculpted like a flower!  Then we checked into our hotel for the evening, a mere £21 per night with breakfast and dinner included! We relaxed and ate a really good pasta and chicken dinner at the hotel before heading off to the french park where the ducal palace was for a night stroll.  After wandering around Parma a little more, we headed back and went to sleep in our suprisingly big rooms!  The next day Jessie and I went to the Ferrari puppet museum and got our own special guided tour because no one else was there.  We also got to meet one of the ferrari sisters.  The whole place was really cool, and everyone was really nice.  Then we walked over to an ancient pharmacy from the 13th century.  It still had a lot of the old equipment and furniture and it was really fun pretending we were old pharmacists in the 1200's.  Finally we headed over with Lindsey to the Duomo, and walked around the giant and beautiful church before going to a fancy outdoor lunch.  For the afternoon because it was so hot we hung out in an air conditioned cafe and then hoped on a train back to Borgo val di Taro just in time to stop at another cafe while we waited for a ride home from Gian Luca.  That night we also got to see fireworks from our bedroom with a perfect view, for some italian holiday.  It was a great weekend overall, and next weekend we plan to go to Cinque Terre for more fun.  Yay!