The last three of days I have gotten a taste of spring. I’ve travelled to Parma to visit Nicola, who spent the last summer in Norway helping me with my field work. Nicola came to Bergen to collected data for his master thesis, which he is analysing at the moment. So I went to Parma to discuss his results. Parma is just 6 hours with the train form Zürich.

I stayed in a B&B in the middle of the city. When I arrived I was surprised to find an Italian and Norwegian flag in the room. What a coincidence I thought. But when the day after the Norwegian flag was exchanged by a Swiss flag, I figured that the lady probably has all the flags in the world. I told her that I come from Norway, but travelled with my Swiss passport…

Parma is a beautiful city, just small enough that you can walk around town and see everything in a couple of hours. Nonetheless it is a lively city with a hundred churches and a bar or cafe at every corner. A couple of theatres, castles and is of course famous for it’s ham and chees. A local wine that is drunk daily is called Lumbresco. It’s sparkling and you drink it cold. And it’s not unusual to drink a bottle of it for lunch (did you hear that Norway?). Espresso is simply called café and vegetarian food consists basically of three types of Tortelli: with pumpkin, with ricotta and spinach or with potato and mushrooms. But I liked it anyway.

Thank you, Nicola, Giada and Alessandro for your hospitality and for having me in Parma!