Italy - Week 49

Monday 20th May

We visited Parma, of Parma Ham & Parmesan Cheese fame, and managed to find both items but unfortunately were unable to locate the biscuits on Garibaldi street lol.

We came to visit Parma’s cathedral to look at one of the most innovative, awe inspiring works of art of the whole Renaissance, (Andrew Graham-Dixon’s words, not mine). In the 1520’s Correggio was commissioned to paint the dome of Parma cathedral. It depicts the assumption of the Virgin Mary after her death being swirled up to heaven to meet Jesus. It took him 8 years to complete.

What was so amazing is that it was painted 10 years after Michelangelo finished the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, and because the people of Parma didn’t want to be out done by the Romans, they wanted their dome painted.

Before then, domes were painted blue with gold stars so Correggio challenged himself to paint it. Titian, who was supposedly the greatest painter of all, said you couldn’t pay Correggio enough for such a magnificent work of art. But the Canon of the cathedral was having none of it and said it looked like a stew of frogs legs. Poor Correggio never got another commission in Parma after that. Wow!

Although the buildings in the Piazza Duomo looked plain and not very exciting from the outside, they were fantastic inside, especially the Cathedral and Octagonal Baptistery.

We enjoyed walking around the town too.

We were sat drinking coffee in Parma when a Scottish couple came and sat next to us. We love talking to different people and hearing their travel stories. They suggested Bergamo as a nice place to visit with the added bonus of being a UNESCO World Heritage site. So the following morning we left Parma and drove north. We found a Sosta in between the upper old town and lower new town on the Park4night app €20/24hrs.

The lady was really helpful and between her few words of English, hand gestures and our few words of Italian, we went in search of the Funicular. We’re not sure what went wrong, but we ended up walking to the top instead phew!! I’m sure we couldn’t have managed it when we first started our trip 11 months ago. We must be a lot fitter now!

The town was great, loads of narrow streets, Piazza’s and artwork in the Church.

The views from the walls were amazing too.

We walked back to Harriet down some very long and steep steps! No wonder they have a Funicular!!

Not far from Bergamo, on the outskirts of Milan is Monza.

The famous 1922 Autodromo Nazionale, a Formula 1 racetrack is located there and we’d called in to visit the car museum and maybe take Harriet for a spin around the track. Unfortunately we did neither. The museum had closed down a while ago due to lack of funds, and there was a private function going on so the circuit was closed to the likes of us lol.

Instead, we spent the afternoon in the beautiful Parco Di Monza, the largest walled park in Europe all 688 hectares of it.

Leaving Monza we headed north to Lake Como.

There’s just something special about mountains and water. The combination in my opinion, is Mother Nature at her best. Stunning Lake Como is just one of those places. We had a great time walking around the waters edge.

Finding Villa Gaeta (although sadly, now permanently closed) where Bond shot Mr White in the leg.

Riding the Trombella Express from Menaggio (our free overnight spot) 4km down the road, we stopped at Lenno where we walked to Villa Balbianello. Another James Bond filming location where Bond was recuperating after being tortured by Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. The gardens were just stunning and so were the views of the lake. The boat ride back to Lenno just finished off the experience.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants on the waters edge when the heavens opened. Luckily it was still warm and the huge umbrellas kept us from getting wet. We had a lovely chat with a couple from Cyprus who wanted to know all about our travels and afterwards, made our way back to Harriet.