Our trip to the Verdi Festival in Parma in 2019 was a great success this year again.
A small group of 10 people interested in culture met in the late afternoon of October 3rd at the Grand Hotel La Ville in the city centre of Parma and was welcomed by me with a Prosecco reception. Getting to know each other was exciting because the participants came from various countries.

The first evening was dedicated to the opera, because after the aperitivo we took a short walk from the hotel to the Teatro Regio Parma and attended the opera NABUCCO in the best seats. The production with a clear reference to the current refugee situation was as unusual as it was challenging. The audience awarded the production and the performances of the actors with long applause.

It is thanks to the emotionality of the audience and the empathy of the conductor Francesco Ivan Ciampo that the famous prison choir entitled „Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate“ was performed twice in a row and gave everyone in our group goose bumps.
The nice evening ended with a glass of wine in the hotel bar and a detailed discussion about the production.
When planning our trip to the Verdifestival, the focus is not only on the music, but also on the extensive cultural offerings of Emilia Romagna and the rich cuisine of the „Food Valley“, because Parma is located in the Po River Valley. This region is known and famous for Pramigiano cheese, Parma ham and other Italian delicacies such as excellent salami, Culatello ham, etc.
This was the aspect of the second day:
In the morning we visited the museum and the Labirinto della Masone of Franco Maria Ricci.

His extensive collection of works of art from all over the world is impressive and his own artistic work is presented in chronological order. Our charming tour guide Francesca guided us through the museum and gave us half an hour to master the labyrinth.
Then we went on to Roncole Verdi, where the maestro’s birthplace is located. The following city tour in Buseto was very interesting. This place is special because it has so much to do with Verdi´s life.
He spent his retirement in Villa Verdi, where he refused to enter the striking Teatro Verdi building. In his opinion, buildings should only be named after the death of an important person and not during his lifetime.

The Centro Storico of Buseto has a medieval character with beautiful arcades on both sides of the main street. Hidden in the innumerable entrances is the entrance to a restaurant that you should definitely visit. It is called Salsamenteria Baratta and there you can eat the typical cold plates of the region with ham, salami and bacon (Lardo) and drink the even more typical red wine LAMBRUSCO. This is served in porcelain cups and this was the toast at the dinner: „Raise the cups“ and we all enjoyed the meal in a good mood.
Afterwards we went to the small Teatro Verdi with only 300 seats, where we were strengthened and introduced to AIDA. The artistic production of Zeffirelli stood in contrast to the production the day before and inspired us. The production alone is a work of art in itself and we were lucky to see it, because it was only reissued for the year 2019. Unfortunately, Zefferelli himself could not experience it any more, because on June 15, 2019, he passed away in Rome at the age of 96.
The next day, the culinary enjoyment of the „Food Valley“ was in the foreground. In the morning we went straight to a cheese dairy where Parmesan cheese is produced. If you know the Italian way of life, you can imagine that the word PARMESAN CHEESE is by far not enough to describe the high quality of the product on the one hand and the producers‘ pride in a special food on the other.

PARMIGIANO REGGIANO is the correct name and they insist on this. And rightly so, because the cheese produced under strict conditions and constant controls bears the DOP seal and with an EU-wide protected designation of origin. The ripening chambers of the cheese loafs are impressive when you imagine that more than 1000 loaves of the coveted cheese are waiting for delivery after approx. 24 to 48 months of ripening.
After the tasting of the Parmigiano with different degrees of maturity we went back to Parma. During a very interesting walk in sunshine and pleasant temperatures of over 20 degrees Francesca brought us closer to some highlights in the city centre.

The Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Teatro Farnese. If you want to learn more about these important buildings, I recommend booking our next trip to the Verdifestival in October 2020.
The final event of the trip was a degustation menu at the Ristorante Parizzi – the only restaurant in Parma awarded with a Michelin star. We were thrilled by the excellent quality of the food and the corresponding wines as well as by the special ambience of the restaurant.
The exuberant atmosphere was the perfect setting for an intensive exchange of impressions from the past days with lots of music, culture and culinary delights.
All participants thanked me very much for this eventful weekend and said goodbye with an „a la prossima volta“, which means: „see you next time . . . . .“