Day 2 Part 2

I got back to the apartment and had time to shower and change before meeting Antonia. You can say one thing about this weather, though - you don’t perspire much! Speaking of weather, the sky was dark and low, when Antonia and I set out. She wanted to show me this castle on the outskirts of Parma. Despite the fact that it wasn’t even 4:30 in the afternoon, it was almost dark. The farther we got from the city, the lower the clouds seemed to descend. When we finally reached the turn off, Antonia pointed upwards and said that the castle was up there. Well, you could have fooled me. We preceded up this road with multiple ‘s’ curves. Eventually we reached a barrier that told us we could go no further. We parked and got out. A few lights burned ahead of us. At the base of the castle, there was a restaurant, a bar and a little shop of some sort. Since we were not going to see very much else, we went into the bar for a coffee. The barista seemed surprised to see anyone walk in on this dark night. Inside, however, it was bright and warm and had an almost alpine feel. We drank our coffee, chatted for a bit and then returned to the car. Antonia took us on a different road hoping that we might catch a glimpse of the castle, but the clouds had settled even lower.

The Castle of Torrechiara - which I never did see

Thwarted in that plan, we now set out to visit Antonia’s sister at her organic farm-market, Agricola Bergamina. It did not take long to reach it. As we pulled in, I could see a field on my right side and recognized many late fall items. (They still have not had frost). On the left, was a long, low building with lots of glass. This had once bee the stall. Inside it was brightly lit and I could see shelves with vegetables on them. This was clearly a bigger operation than I had imagined. Antonia obviously knew most of the employees, because everyone greeted her. She went off to look for her sister, so I had plenty of time to poke around. I’m not sure what kind of fertilizer they use, but there were some very large cabbages and cauliflower on display. In addition to vegetables, they sell bread, artisanal cheeses, and pickles and sauces in bottles. Not everything in the shop is produced there, but everything is sourced from other small, organic farms. Happily there was a steady stream of customers.

The farm market

Antonia returned and introduced me to her sister, who had a nice ruddy glow about her. She seemed distracted, however. There was a lot of activity going on around us. She finally explained that they were getting ready for dinner service. I hadn’t realized that there was food served on a regular basis. The back of the room had quite a few long tables, which I assumed were used for special events. Apparently, what had started as a small ‘aperitivo’ (they brew their own beer) has morphed into light supper offerings. They have recently built a good-sized kitchen and someone who looked like a chef was standing at the stove. It seemed like the kind of operation that I would have loved to been involved with. Antonia and I sat down at one of the tables, where we enjoyed a selection of three cheeses, home baked bread and home-brewed beer. After a nice chat, we said out good-byes, got into the car and headed back into Parma - Antonia to the restaurant and I to my little apartment.

Our 'snack'