This morning we woke up early to catch the train from Venice to Parma. The friends we were staying with in Venice got back to the apartment after a weekend in Naples pretty early, so we had a chance to catch up with them before we left. After leaving there place we set off to catch the boat to bring us to the train station. When it was our stop, the boat was so packed that we actually got stuck on the boat and missed our stop. Amy was the only one who made it off the boat and the rest of us had to go to the next stop to catch the next boat. Fortunately the next stop was the Rialdo, so we had a chance to see the Rialdo on a sunny day, despite missing our boat stop. We also were pretty lucky that the next boat going to the train station was leaving five minutes after we arrived! Although when we went to get on the boat, Sal and Anisha made it on for free, but the lady stopped Grace and I and made us buy a ticket... it wasn't too bad considering the boats we had taken the previous day had all been free. When we all finally made it to the train station, we bought tickets and boarded the 10:57 train to Parma!
We arrived in Parma and it was beautiful and sunny which was really nice after the rainy day we had in Venice. We took a taxi from the train station in Parma to the place where Amy's friend was staying to drop all our stuff off. Her friend is staying in a homestay in Parma, and the apartment was beautiful! There was bread and nutella waiting for us when we arrived. After dropping off our luggage we made our way into the city center where we met up with my friend Jenn who was also studying abroad in Parma! We set off to explore the Duomo in Parma - apparently every city in Itlay has their own Duomo - and the inside was beautiful. We then stopped in to explore a second church near the duomo to have a look around. There are definitely a lot of churches in Italy. After we finished, we took a break to have some gelato. The plan was to have gelato in every city in Italy! The gelato place we went to was called K2 Gelato which was really good. Amy and I split fragola (strawberry) and it was served to us in the shape of a flower! After eating the gelato, we walked through the park, back to Amy's friend's apartment, where we waited for her to get back from class.
Jenn, Sal, Anisha, and I headed off to Jenn's apartment to drop off my luggage and to pick up some bikes! Aparently Parma is a city known for many people riding on bikes, and fortunately between Jenn and Amy's friend, there were enough bikes for all of us to use! So we set off on a bike tour of Parma... it was weird riding a bike again and it definitely took some getting used to, it had been awhile! But the bikes were definitely worth it. We rode around the park for awhile before heading back to Jenn's apartment.
That evening, Jenn, her roommates, and I all went out to dinner at Osteria dello Zingaro. I had tortellini, which was really raviolloi, with spinach and cheese inside and parmesan cheese on top. I figure you can't go to Parma without trying Parmesan cheese! The food was great, and after dinner we headed back to Jenn's place to have some cheese and prochuttio before going to bed - apparently Parma is also well known for their prochuttio.
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