Where we're at

One thoughtful reader pointed out that it would be nice to give everyone some idea of where in Italy we are.  Here's a map of Emilia Romagna, the province we're in, showing where it's located in Northern Italy. 

And here's a more detailed map of the province, showing Fidenza (just a bit northeast of Parma), some of the other towns, and the Po River. The land here is flat, because this is all river delta, a fact we appreciate every time we go for a walk.

It is thanks to the Po that we have plenty of humidity in the summer and plenty of dense fog in the winter. It's also the reason this has been a very rich agricultural area for centuries, producing an abundance of wheat, dairy, wine, and pork and a traditional cuisine--Parmesan cheese, Parma ham, cheese tortelli in butter, bubbly wines--that takes full advantage of that richness.

I've started reading Giovannino Guareschi's Mondo Piccolo stories, which are set in the rural Po Valley. Early in his first book he extols the un-spectacularly special character of the wide, flat Po, "the only respectable river that exists in Italy," he writes. "Rivers with self-respect develop in plains, because water is stuff made to remain horizontal, and only when it is perfectly horizontal does water retain all its natural dignity. The falls of Niagara are freaks, like men who walk on their hands."