We're arrived

We flew in to Milan yesterday morning and arrived in Fidenza in the afternoon. It's a lovely little town near Parma, and a place we've been visiting for almost thirty years because our friends Pam and Romano live here and they are some of our favorite people. In particular, they share our obsessive interest in food.

Yesterday evening, while Danny took a restorative nap, Pam and I strolled over to Fidenza's 12th-century cathedral and had an aperitivo in a bar across the piazza. Of course I had an Aperol spritz. It came with a bowl of potato chips and a plate of mortadella and fried bread. We are going to have to do a lot of walking on this trip...





Fidenza is changing--there are new buildings going up, some of them hideous, and more varied stores, including a halal butcher and a good kebab shop on Pam and Romano's street. But to us it seems mostly timeless and very Italian.

There's the Duomo, whose outside was recently cleaned, and all the unself-consciously picturesque row houses. You see lots of older people zipping around on bicycles, in street clothes rather than spandex outfits, and everyone on the street seems to know everyone else.

Here is the main square, which fills up in the evening during the passeggiata, or evening stroll, when people come out for a drink or a gelato and socialize, but this morning it was relatively empty.

This morning we had coffee with Pam and her friend Franca, who has agreed to give both Danny and me daily conversational Italian lessons while we're here. We walked over to a small park near our hotel, a quiet place where Danny had his first lesson.


I spent the next hour with Franca. Topics included getting a cold (because I currently have one--thanks, Mom!), the polite way to say that someone is old, and phone scams. I had a great time but I understand why Danny is now taking a nap...even one hour spent speaking and listening to another language is exhausting.

If only it used up a lot of calories! Because now we are on our way to lunch with Pam. Spaghetti with anchovies and prosciutto with melon are on the menu.