Art, history & walks
Giulia Conti
Published work
25 signed pages across 3 collections, biggest section first.
Sights 15
- Parma Cathedral (Duomo)Free to enter, open all day, and home to Correggio's Assumption dome. The crypt, the 1178 Antelami relief and the timing that keeps you out of Mass.Read
- Baptistery of ParmaAntelami's pink Verona-marble octagon, begun in 1196. The €12 permit also covers the Diocesan Museum and lasts two days. Here is why the inside earns the fee.Read
- Palazzo della PilottaThe Farnese palace holds the Teatro Farnese, the Galleria Nazionale and three more museums on one €18 ticket. The after-5 p.m. deal, the Monday closure and a 2-hour plan.Read
- Teatro FarneseA 1618 court theater of painted wood and stucco that once flooded its floor for a sea battle. You reach it through the Pilotta, on the €18 ticket. What to look at and how long it takes.Read
- San Giovanni EvangelistaThe Benedictine abbey church behind the Duomo: Correggio's first dome, Parmigianino's early frescoes, and a 13th-century-rooted pharmacy on a separate €5 ticket.Read
- Santa Maria della SteccataA domed Renaissance church off Piazza Garibaldi. Parmigianino's Wise and Foolish Virgins, the commission that got him jailed, and the burial place of the Farnese dukes.Read
- Teatro Regio di ParmaMarie Louise's 1829 opera house. The 30-minute tour costs €12 and can be cancelled by rehearsals; the loggione and a night at the opera are the fuller experience.Read
- Piazza GaribaldiThe civic heart of Parma, on the old Roman forum. What to look at on Palazzo del Governatore, the evening passeggiata, and the Van Gogh to Modigliani exhibition opening October 2, 2026.Read
- Camera di San PaoloCorreggio's painted room for Abbess Giovanna da Piacenza is closed for restoration until an expected spring 2027 reopening. What it is, what it will cost, and where to see Correggio meanwhile.Read
- Parco DucaleThe Farnese dukes' garden across the river from the Pilotta. Free, open late, with a newly restored fountain. The palace in the middle houses the Carabinieri and is not regularly open.Read
- San Francesco del PratoA Gothic Franciscan church turned into Parma's prison under Napoleon, abandoned in 1993 and reopened in 2021. Free, four minutes from the Duomo, with a busy October 2026 for Saint Francis's 800th.Read
- Museo Glauco LombardiNapoleon's second wife became Duchess of Parma, and this museum keeps her portraits, jewels, needlework and fortepiano. €7, closed Mondays, and closing at 4 p.m. most days.Read
- Arturo Toscanini's BirthplaceThe Oltretorrente house where the conductor was born in 1867, a city museum since 1967. €4, closed Monday and Tuesday. For non-opera fans, a maybe; with the Teatro Regio tour, a good pairing.Read
- Casa del SuonoA museum of sound reproduction in the former church of Santa Elisabetta: about 400 radios, phonographs and players, and two listening installations built on wave field synthesis. €4, 45 minutes.Read
- Pinacoteca StuardThe city's own picture gallery in the former San Paolo monastery: Tuscan gold-ground panels, Guercino, Reni, Lanfranco and a Parmigianino greyhound. €4, and quiet while its famous neighbor is shut.Read
Walks 6
- Historic centre loopThe first walk to do in Parma: seven landmarks on a 2.6 km loop, 35 minutes on foot and three to four hours with visits. Which stops charge, the lunch-hour trap, and the €10 Pilotta trick.Read
- Correggio and Parmigianino walkParma's two Renaissance painters on a short walk: Correggio's two domes, Parmigianino's arch at the Steccata and the Galleria Nazionale. What is closed or on loan in autumn 2026, and the order that makes sense.Read
- Oltretorrente walkParma's working-class quarter across the torrent, where the city stopped Balbo's fascist squads in August 1922. A loop from Piazza Garibaldi to the barricades monument, Toscanini's birthplace and the ducal park.Read
- Music walk: Verdi, Toscanini, PaganiniParma's musical map on foot: Toscanini's birthplace, the Teatro Regio, two small music museums, the Conservatorio and, for the committed, Paganini's tomb at the Villetta cemetery. The day it works, and the €8 tour trick.Read
- Parks walk: Parco Ducale to the CittadellaA slower day in Parma: the Farnese dukes' garden with its restored fountain, a stroll through the center, and the pentagonal 16th-century fortress that is now the city's family park. Free all the way.Read
- Evening aperitivo walkParma's early-evening ritual on one short street: an old enoteca with cheap glasses, a natural-leaning wine bar, and a courtyard bar with salumi boards. What a glass costs, which nights work, and where to go after.Read
Articles 4
- Why Parma is a UNESCO City of GastronomyA network membership, not a restaurant rating and not World Heritage. What UNESCO recognized in 2015, what changed on the ground, and a one-day way to eat what the title describes.Read
- Marie Louise, the Duchess who made ParmaNapoleon's second wife was given Parma for life in 1815 and ruled it for 31 years. Here is what she built, what is myth, and where to find her today, from the Teatro Regio to her fortepiano.Read
- DOP, IGP and the labels on Parma foodThe EU marks decoded, then the marks the consortia burn into the product: pin dots and an oval brand on Parmigiano, a five-point crown on the ham. Plus what Parmesan means in the US.Read
- Correggio and Parmigianino: Parma's two paintersTwo painters, one city, five buildings. Who Correggio and Parmigianino were, where their work hangs or soars in Parma, what is closed or on loan this autumn, and the order that makes sense.Read