Saturday was a free day and people from the group dispersed across the region in pursuit of the Italian landscape: to Milano, Laggho Maggiore, Venice, the beach at La Spezia. Definitely a bigger town and full of historical sites and art, the neighboring town of Parma, a twenty minute train ride away from Reggio, offered a perfect solution for our day, minimizing travel with more time to be in a place and experience it. Parma is also conveniently close to many castles in the Romagna foothills of the Apennines.
Arriving at the new, and still under construction, train station, our first task was to get oriented, find maps and information about the town, but no tourist office was in site. So we went off toward what looked like the direction to the historic center. I asked a shop keeper in set of market stall tents for information and she called out to someone, a lawyer – not by name, but by title – “Avvoccata!,” she called. The woman was obliging and directed us to the nearest tourist office. We acquired maps and information and set off to see the sites. Some of us wanted to walk around and see the buildings and lay of the land, and some wanted to go into the Baptistry and study the frescoes. We made a time to rendezvous, and parted ways.
The style was Romanesque the building and art date back to mid 12th century, every panel in the octagonal shape of the building full of frescoes. Mary Lynn and I studied these slowly, from the bottom we worked our way up the top of the dome, deciphering the images and Latin words to figure out how the scenes progressed from Old Testament to new, and identifying the prophets by their names. The hour passed quickly – there and in the Cathedral next door — and as the bells rang noon, we went outside to meet the group, who had discovered the river and walkways in town. After a quick lunch, purchased at a small panetteria (bakery) and consumed on the steps of the Palazzo Pilatto grounds, we were on to finding out how to take the bus to a castle. We chose Torrechiara since we’d read that it was the closest and easiest to access, and the pictures were irresistible.
It was midday and hot, we were a little depleted from all the intense thinking in the conference in the Malaguzzi Center in the days running up to this. It was not that easy to figure out all the pieces of this journey – which line, where you catch it, how to buy a ticket or even which ticket to buy. We knew enough to know it was not an urban, but a suburban line – but who knew what “zone” Torrechiara was in. Even after we bought the tickets, from a human in a tobacco and newsstand, rather than the uncommunicative ticket-dispensing machine, we first got on the bus in the wrong direction, and the driver redirected us. Everyone seemed a little washed out, but once we found seats on the right bus, it was like the sun after a rain. Fortune began to shine upon us.
The ride out was through Parma, passing the river and exiting the historical center to reveal first apartment buildings and then lovely old villas and gardens. Soon we left urban environs altogether and the countryside opened onto patches of green and yellow, round hay bales, farmhouses and trees. Everyone relaxed and began to smile. Off in the distance the formerly flat plain began to give way to rolling hills and then we could see the castle towers silhouetted in the distance. Smiles and laughter abound. A kind woman rang the bell for us, to signal a stop – and we alighted the bus calling our thanks.
Excited now we set off into the very small town, following the signs the castle. The road led up a steep hill and higher we got, the more beautiful the view. The towers of the castle showed above us and pulled us along. Crossing the mote, now dry, we entered the castle through a stone archway and paid for our tickets, and entered the main courtyard. Stone pavement and doorways and a couple of stone wells before us, we went upstairs first to take photos and proceeded through rooms. All were empty of furniture but the walls were covered in frescoes, each room unique in themes and paintings. Our favorite space was the large terrace outside the rooms on the North. This covered courtyard, with a view all around of the rolling hills and fields, the breeze and the sunshine though we were in the shade, compelled us to perch on the low walls and stay a while.
On return we were in high spirits – having had a perfect afternoon out in the country, exploring Torrechiara castle, seeing the hills of the Romagna Apennines, suffused in light, breathing the air, and came home to a festive dinner at our favorite place, complete with profiteroles for dessert. Who could have imagined more?