Parma
Historic Centre Of Parma, Holding Correggio'S Assumption Dome Of The 1520s, The Antelami Baptistery And The Wooden Teatro Farnese Of 1618 · Parma, Emilia-Romagna
Parma is where Parmesan and prosciutto come from, and it would be worth the trip for that alone, but the reason to stay is a dome. In the 1520s Correggio painted the inside of the cathedral cupola as the Virgin rising through a spiral of clouds and legs and foreshortened bodies going up and away from you, and every ceiling painted in Europe for the next two hundred years is arguing with it. Beside the cathedral stands a pink marble baptistery, an octagon carved inside and out by Antelami around 1200 and one of the best single medieval buildings in Italy. Across town there is a wooden theatre of 1618 built entirely inside a palace, bombed flat in the war and rebuilt from the pieces. The city itself is prosperous, small, full of bicycles and famously pleased with itself, and it eats better than almost anywhere else in the country. The cathedral is free, the dome is the best thing in the city, and there is a mirror set up in the nave so you can look at it without wrecking your neck. Two days is enough, and one of them should include a dairy.
Piazza Duomo 7, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, 43121, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: the cathedral opens daily and free with a midday interval and closes for services. The Baptistery and the diocesan museum keep museum hours with a last admission before closing. The Palazzo della Pilotta complex has a weekly closing day. The Teatro Regio opens for guided daytime visits at set times only, and not on performance days. Dairy and ham visits are morning only and by arrangement. Streets and the Parco Ducale never close. Confirm before travelling.