What is Parma known for?

DOP cheese aged across the surrounding province in vaults that hold wheels twelve to thirty-six months before sale. Salt-cured ham produced on the Apennine hills around Langhirano, holding DOP status and protected by a consortium of about 140 producers. Opera house of 1829, home of Festival Verdi every October; Toscanini, born in Parma in 1867, kept his recordings as the house standard.

Parma is a comune in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 2 kilometers from Parma.

Emilia-Romagna · Parma

Parma

A 57-meter Po-plain capital on the Via Emilia, where Correggio painted the Duomo dome and Parmigiano ages in vaults across the province.

2 km / 1 mi

Nearest hub (Parma)

196,764

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Parma sits on the Via Emilia, halfway between Bologna and Piacenza, the Po Valley reaching north and the Apennine foothills closing in fifteen kilometers south. Under the Farnese in the sixteenth century and Marie Louise of Habsburg in the nineteenth, the city ran its own duchy and built the institutions that still define it: the Palazzo della Pilotta, the Teatro Farnese, the Teatro Regio of 1829. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, consecrated in 1106, holds Correggio's Assumption fresco in the dome, painted between 1526 and 1530 with a vortex of figures that read as a single rotating body. The Battistero, octagonal in pink Veronese marble, was designed and carved by Benedetto Antelami from 1196. Arturo Toscanini was born here in 1867; the Teatro Regio still treats his recordings as house standard. The city's two food appellations, Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, carry European protected status; UNESCO named the city a Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015. The population is 196,764.

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Gallery

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Known for

Duomo di Parma
Cathedral consecrated 1106, holding Correggio's Assumption fresco in the dome, painted 1526 to 1530 as a single rotating vortex of figures.
Battistero
Octagonal baptistery in pink Veronese marble, 35 meters tall, designed and sculpted by Benedetto Antelami from 1196, completed in 1270.
Palazzo della Pilotta
Sixteenth-century Farnese palace housing the National Gallery, the Archaeological Museum and the wooden Teatro Farnese of 1618.
Teatro Regio
Fourteen-hundred-seat opera house inaugurated 16 May 1829, home of the annual Festival Verdi every October.
Piazza Duomo
Medieval square with the Romanesque Cathedral, the Battistero of Antelami and the Palazzo Vescovile, kept as a single ensemble since the twelfth century.
Camera di San Paolo
Private chamber of the abbess of San Paolo, frescoed by Correggio in 1518 with a vault of putti and mythological scenes.
Galleria Nazionale
National gallery inside the Pilotta with works by Correggio, Parmigianino, Leonardo's Testa di Fanciulla and a major Farnese collection.

Signature product

Parmigiano-Reggiano DOPDOP

The cheese aged 24 months minimum, made from raw milk on the plain south of the Po. Production is restricted to five provinces; Parma is the namesake.

See every town in our catalogue producing Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the working months in Parma. The Po Valley clears, the colonnaded streets behind the Pilotta hold their light, and the food calendar lines up: asparagus in May, prosciutto festivals in June, Parmigiano openings into the autumn. July and August bring thirty-five degrees and the humidity that comes with the plain; the city empties in the second half of August. November through March is foggy, cold, and operatic. The Festival Verdi runs the four weeks of October and books out months ahead. The Christmas market in Piazza Garibaldi keeps the centro storico busy in December, and the Carnevale di Parma builds through February.