Parma -Ham it up and say cheese!

Parma, the city famous for Parmagiano Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma has become one of the unexpected highlights of Italy so far! If you have little interest in shopping or in food- you might as well stop reading now. On the other hand, if you are in Natalie’s histology class, this might be another welcome break from pseudostratified columnar epithelium. I am going to make two entries for this one starting with shopping.
As Adam and I researched Parma, we discovered that we would need a car if we wanted to see the highlights of Parma. Since we were doing most of our sightseeing on Sunday and Monday we had to pick up the car on Saturday (the pick-up location wasn’t open on Sunday). Here is a simple algebra equation that I ran through my head:
Car = freedom
Sightseeing = Sunday + Monday
Freedom = Saturday + Sunday + Monday
Therefore (Saturday + Sunday +Monday) – (Sunday + Monday) = one free day Saturday
Outlet center nearby + freedom = SHOPPING!!

But I’m afraid it is not that simple…. I have married a man that hates shopping. Fortunately…. ummm I mean unfortunately, Adam lost a shirt somewhere along the way and is down to 2 shirts. Cunningly, I use this to my advantage. “You can buy a new shirt” and “most certainly there will be gadget stores there sweetie”…. SOLD! Just for extra insurance, I give Adam a packing list for the day:
iPod
laptop
book
chocolate

We hit the road in search of an outlet center I had found written about on the web. If it weren’t for GPS we would have never found this place. Unlike our outlets at home (shiny, new, over-advertised, and picked-over with no real bargains to be found), this place was the real deal. A nondescript building tucked away down an unsuspecting country road with the occasional “diffusione tessile” sign as the only hint of it's existence. We got Adam’s tactical shopping out of the way first, quickly finding him a replacement shirt and a nice cashmere sweater. After getting him all settled in with the creature comforts, I hit the BCBG/ Max Azria outlet; rack upon rack of bargains being skillfully picked through by the stiletto clad hardcore shoppers, their signature huge shades temporarily relocated to their heads. (I think Italian women are born with Barbie feet- you know, permanently bent into a high heel position. They wear killer heels everywhere, even exploring Roman ruins!)
Given our limited packing space, the shopping trip was more of an exercise in self control than the fabulous wardrobe revamp that it should’ve been. The next outlet center was pretty much exactly what I described our outlets at home to be. We found nothing to buy but we did have a good ogle at the Lindt outlet and their extensive variety of chocolates (another exercise in self control as we managed to leave without a thing!)
Okay enough retail porn, stay tuned for the really yummy stuff!