The palace of Berzieri spas is one of the most complex and interesting buildings of the spa centre, the symbol of European spa treatment and of the town of Salsomaggiore Terme, a unique example of spa Deco art. The building is dedicated to Lorenzo Berzieri, a doctor who first did a systematic piece of research on the therapeutic properties of salt- bromo-iodic waters of the town. It was built at the beginning of 1900 in the same area of the Farnese salt-mines which hosted the old treatment establishment dated 1860. In 1912 the project was started by the architect Ugo Giusti who was first helped by the engineer Luigi Bernardini. In 1919 the project was interrupted because of the First World War; it was then resumed by Galileo Chini and his colleagues from the Fornaci San Lorenzo company, who dealt with the development and accomplishment of the decorative features. The work finished after four years and the opening ceremony took place on 27th May 1923.

Duomo- Parma’s Cathedral Parma Dance The most well-known dancers from around the world at The International Festival organized by Fondazione Teatro Regio. From 6th May to 23rd May – annual events Under the Parma sky A rich season of music and dance in the open theatre set up in the historic courtyard of Palazzo della Pilotta. From 1st June to 30th July – annual events Verdi Festival Every October occurs the annual event in order to celebrate the great composer from Roncole di Busseto at Teatro Regio in Parma and in Verdi’s birth area. October – annual events Parma Jazz Festival Music of rare quality and unique attractions thanks to the art director Antonio Ciacca, musician and director of “Jazz at Lincoln Center” of New York. From 5th May to 8th May –annual events Dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, Parma’s Cathedral is among the most representative Romanesque-style buildings of the time in the Po valley. The building work started in 1059; it was consecrated in 1106. Today the façade features a saddle roof, three types of loggias and three portals. The façade, which is between two towers, was originally conceived as the coeval one in the Duomo of Fidenza. Today it features only a tower, which was built between 1284 and 1294; on the cusp it has a gold-coloured copper angel, which is now inside the Museo Diocesano. The construction of the second tower was started in 1602 and was interrupted just after. At the moment the bell tower is covered with scaffolding because a lighting has recently damaged the gold-coloured copper angel and the tower cusp. Inside the Duomo we find a nave and two aisles and a transept with lateral chapels ending in apses. The internal decoration boasts sculptures of great interest, while in the transept the Deposition of Christ was carved by Antelami. Between 1525 and 1530 Correggio painted the cupola with the representation of the Virgin surrounded by the apostles, youths and angels with instruments; in the pendentives he painted the patron saints of the town. The Duomo is the historic centre, within a five-minute- walk from Piazza Garibaldi and a ten-minute-walk from the railway station.    Battistero    It is a symbolic building of the transition from late Romanesque style to Gothic style. Covered with pink marble from Verona, the building work of Battistero started in 1196 and was completed in 1307. The Battistero of Parma, which is near the Duomo, represents one of the most significant artistic expressions in Italy. It has an octagonal shape; in the architrave of the northern portal, the one that looks onto a square called the Virgin Square, there are inscribed the date of the beginning of the construction work and the name of Benedetto Antelami who supervised and almost completed the marvelous plastic decoration of the building. The western portal is called the portal of the Final Judgment; the southern one is called the Life Portal. The solemn interior, which boasts a Gothic taste, is soared into the sky by sixteen ribs irradiating towards the ogival vault by converging onto the ringed keystone. In the middle there is the double baptismal immersion bath which has an octagonal layout as well and dates back to the end of the thirteenth century. Antelami carved also the cycle of the months and the seasons and the respective star signs. The building, covered with a cupola, features in the lower part semicircular niches and two types of loggias in the upper part. In the inner vault there are tempera paintings from the middle of the thirteenth century. OPENING TIMES Every day from 9.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and from 15.00 p.m. to 18.45 p.m. Visitors are not permitted inside during services. Services take place on Sundays and on public holidays at 8.00 a.m. from Easter until October. Events at Teatro Regio in Parma Concert Season – Teatro Regio and Auditorium Paganini A packed schedule with new talented singers and the most prestigious directors. From 3rd February to 30th April – annual events Opera Season The most expected events in one of the most attractive theatres in Italy From 29th January to 2nd May – annual events Parma Dance The most well-known dancers from around the world at The International Festival organized by Fondazione Teatro Regio. From 6th May to 23rd May – annual events Under the Parma sky A rich season of music and dance in the open theatre set up in the historic courtyard of Palazzo della Pilotta. From 1st June to 30th July – annual events Verdi Festival Every October occurs the annual event in order to celebrate the great composer from Roncole di Busseto at Teatro Regio in Parma and in Verdi’s birth area. October – annual events Parma Jazz Festival Music of rare quality and unique attractions thanks to the art director Antonio Ciacca, musician and director of “Jazz at Lincoln Center” of New York. From 5th May to 8th May –annual events

Birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, visited at any time of year, it is a popular moltoi place for music lovers. The most important places are: the House of Giuseppe Verdi, The National Museum Giuseppe Verdi Villa Pallavicino, Giuseppe Verdi Theater. Busseto, with its theatre, a little music jewel, Villa Verdi by S. Agata, the well-known Teatro Regio and the sixteenth-century Farnese Theatre in Parma, the museum dedicated to Verdi and his compositions, everything here is permeated by music. For people who are fond of Verdi’s music or are curious to discover his music there are many occasions to go to the opera and listen to a concert sitting in the same stalls where Verdi used to sit, picking and choosing from a packed concert schedule. In order to get to know Verdi you should visit the house where he lived for a long time and where he always wanted to come back after his journeys through Italy and Europe. Villa Verdi in Sant’Agata, a hamlet by Villanova sull’Arda, is the estate Giuseppe Verdi bought in 1848 and inhabitated from 1851 onwards, gradually creating his own house. Verdi himself sketched out his house, he gave some accurate written indication of the building materials to use and of the sizes for the extension plan of his original house, making over its look until he turned it into the house we can now admire. There the best-known opera composer lived and worked, enjoying his detached life that was necessary for his creative genius and his temperament, bashful and reserved. The original manor house bought by Verdi became in a few years a perfect house where the aesthetic rules of the time combined with his personal tastes creating a palette that can be still enjoyed. Today, Villa Verdi, which has remained unchanged since the time of the great composer represents the key to the understanding of the immortal spirit of Verdi the genius and the man.

The largest labyrinth in the world was created at Fontanellato, Parma, from an idea of the publisher, designer, art collector and bibliophile Franco Maria Ricci, and a promise he made in 1977 to the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, who had always been fascinated by the symbol of the labyrinth, also as a metaphor of the human condition. Extending over 80,000 sq. metres of land, the maze has been designed with the architects Pier Carlo Bontempi, who completed the buildings, and Davide Dutto, who planned the geometry of the park.

The small church sits in the surroundings of Salsomaggiore Terme and preserves its Roman features dating back to the twelfth century almost intact despite the renovation works in the fourteenth century and during the next centuries. In the nineteenth century a porch portal was added to the original construction.

This church dates back to Pre-Roman times, as its plain and austere fabric reveals; the ancient structure probably underwent the ravages of armed bands that happened to fight at the foot of the castles of Contignaco (it is still there and hosts a wine industry) and of Galinella (there are only traces of it). The building was built in around 1330, providing the parsonage with walls, loopholes and other sheltering devices.

Built in a strange position near the eastern walls, Pieve di San Giorgio was established in the thirteenth century and represents one of the most important examples of Romanesque holy architecture in the Piacenza area with its nave and two aisles and quadrangular bell tower. The entrance portal, of excellent craftsmanship, is surmounted by a sculpted lunette representing S. Giorgio killing the dragon, which was made almost surely by an artist belonging to Antelami’s school and dates back to the thirteenth century. The central apse, joined by two other incomplete apses, is elegantly surmounted by capstones. The interior, which is intact in its original layout but for the roofing, features mighty stone pillars and capitals, in which figures were sculpted through a simple technique, which suggests the provincial character of the Romanesque art and is different from the riper style of the portal and the apse. The apse fresco made by an unknown local artist of the sixteenth century takes up the theme of Saint George killing the dragon.

The history of the abbey is marked by a long and active presence of monks throughout centuries. In the bordering land agriculture and drainage works developed, but in the entire area of northern Italy religion permitted the opening of a great number of outbuildings for both male and female religious orders (almost twenty) as far as the lagoon of Venice. In the Parma area the monumental abbeys of Fontevivo and San Martino in Val Serena are well known. The civil matters weighed upon the Cistercian community considerably.

The cathedral of Fidenza, outstanding for the richness of its bas-reliefs in the Romanesque style, is dedicated to St. Donnino the martyr, the patron saint of the town. It was planned by Benedetto Antelami and completed by his pupils between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. The façade is a showcase of outstanding sculptures, which, like the small sketches of a very long comic-strip story, narrate history carefully. The “Francigena road” also known as “Romea road” ran through this area. This road led pilgrims from western Europe to Rome, inevitably passing by many villages that hosted significant religious buildings. This happened because the devoted pilgrims had to ‘deserve’ something before arriving at the ‘holy town’. In order to deserve something the pilgrims used to walk utterly penitent and praying. For this reason Fidenza, which was previously a “praefectura”, i.e a Roman business centre, became later a “municipium”, i.e. a flourishing town, as the numerous valuable findings, such as coins, mosaics and ceramics suggest. Here lived and died St. Donnino after being martyred for his Christian creed. He was a “cubiculario” ( someone who cleaned rooms in ancient Rome) working for the emperor Massimiliano Erculeo, he was indeed his butler. Only aristocratic people could do this job which required to provide accompaniment to the emperor, who was the most prominent personality. It was a demanding and high-powered job, because it was a hard task dealing with clothes, furniture and coaches for the crown, which did not accept any mistakes. However, fate urged Donnino into converting to Christianity against the emperor’s will who not only removed him from his job, but he followed him as far as to the river Stirone in order to behead him. On the portal of the cathedral there is a representation of the moment when his life was at its peak, i.e., when he sacrificed himself for Jesus Christ, which is represented by his beheading that took place on the left bank of the river Stirone, where there is now a Roman bridge, in 293. When the corpse of St. Donnino was abandoned, a miracle occurred which is remembered by the bas-reliefs of the façade. Suddenly, the corpse, holding his head in his hand, rose and started walking across the river! As soon as he

Gavinell is one of the most important businesses for medical plants in the European community. It covers an area of fields under cultivation of around 30 acres; of which a little more than 12 acres can be visited. The visitor can admire more than 450 kinds of aromatic and medicinal plants; some of them are very rare and native and are subdivided into families and healing properties. Among these, the beautiful white lavender stands out because of its beauty and importance. The school for natural cuisine inside the company gives the possibility of learning, appreciating and putting into practice the rules for living a healthy lifestyle through medicinal plants.

Gavinell is one of the most important businesses for medical plants in the European community. It covers an area of fields under cultivation of around 30 acres; of which a little more than 12 acres can be visited. The visitor can admire more than 450 kinds of aromatic and medicinal plants; some of them are very rare and native and are subdivided into families and healing properties. Among these, the beautiful white lavender stands out because of its beauty and importance. The school for natural cuisine inside the company gives the possibility of learning, appreciating and putting into practice the rules for living a healthy lifestyle through medicinal plants. Opening times The botanic garden is open every day from 9. 30 a.m. to 12.00 p. m. and from 15.30 p.m. to 19.00 p.m. The opening is free. Conducted tours are available every afternoon from May until the beginning of October (from 15.30 p.m. to 17.10 p.m.). It is advisable to book your guided tour!

Parmigiano Reggiano cheeseis a paean to tradition. In comparison to other cheeses it cannot be industrially produced, but it is an exclusive homemade product, made by the skilful hands of ‘casari’ or cheesemakers, who have been making it through a hands-on work since medieval times. The ingredients that make the famous cheese very fragrant and healthy are various. First of all the cows whose milk is used to produce Parmesan cheese are fed only on grass and hay; starter whey and calf rennet are added to the milk while it is being heated. One of the characteristics of authentic Parmesan cheese is that it contains no additives or artificial flavorings. In order to help bring out its flavor salt is added. This is done by soaking the wheels of Parmesan cheese in salty brine for a period of twenty days. Once the brining process is finished the Parmesan cheese is let mature and rest for 24 months in special temperature controlled rooms. At 12 months, the Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano inspects each and every cheese wheel. Those cheeses that pass the test are then heat branded on the rind with the Consorzio's logo.