Gonzaga and Parma

Yesterday our travels took us to the town of Gonzaga near Mantova (Mantua) and also Parma. It is about a two hour drive--to Florence, through the mountains to Bologna, and then across part of the Po Valley. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive.

We went to Gonzaga for a mostra scambio--auto/moto swap meet. Interestingly, I had to pay to get in but Dom was free, maybe because he is a pensionato (retired). The show had a lot of motorcycle bits and pieces and not a lot of car stuff. 

There were a couple of interesting vehicles including this Fiat 500 version--a Belvedere Cabrio. It was just adorable, like most Fiat 500s of a certain age.

The car below is a version of a Fiat Topelino--another adorable car. It is also a convertible or sorts. I love the striped awning that clips to the open roof to keep the sun off the driver and passengers.

We spent about an hour at the mostra scambio and then headed to Parma for lunch. The last time we were there was over 20 years ago. All I remembered about it was the crummy hotel we stayed in.

Walking around the city on a beautiful day gave me a completely different impression. Like much of Italy north of the Appenines, Parma seems more northern European than southern. It was neat and tidy and had good services like bike lanes and free bike rentals. It also had some great looking electric buses.

I thought this tower would be the center of town but it turned out not to be so. Note that it leans like many towers in Italy, especially northern Italy.

We finally arrived at the centro storico. There was a series of small pedestrian lanes. Some sort of "sidewalk sale" event was taking place. Many of the shops had merchandise, seating, or other intriguing displays set up outside. There were a number of small restaurants but it was difficult to find one that had seating in the shade. We finally stopped at a cafe/bar near the Duomo.

After lunch we walked the short distance to the Duomo. More scaffolding.

Nearby is the baptistery that is made of lovely pink stone and more decorated than the Duomo.

 There is quite a bit of delicate carving and small statues around the baptistery.

It is a pretty piazza but the day was far too hot. As you can see, everyone was somewhere cool.

We drove back to Capannori through the mountains along the A15 which runs between Parma and La Spezia. It was amazing how many German license plates there were on the cars. The vehicles seemed to be filled with families and camping equipment. A lot of vacation properties rent by the week here and Saturday is the traditional changeover day. Those folks were at the end of a long, hot drive but probably had a nice beach vacation to look forward to.

It has been quite warm. This coming week I suspect we might head for the beach or the mountains.