Parma Municipality

The city of Parma is located along the ancient Via Emilia, between Milan and Bologna, crossed since the Roman times by merchants and travellers from near and faraway. Not a simple road but a geographic and mental itinerary which unravels among the crops of the Bassa padana and the valleys of the Apennines, where ideas and different sensibilities got together to create the basics of a civilization made of hospitality, food and land.

It is a city with a glorious past: it’s one of those places where art, music, literature, history, traditions and good life are strictly linked together: the beauty of Marie Louise; the genius of Toscanini; the harmony of Correggio; the talent of Verdi. Every year, in October, the Verdi Festival celebrates the Maestro born in Roncole di Busseto, in the province of Parma, at the Regio Theatre of Parma and in Verdi’s lands. Since 2003 Parma is the headquarter of the European Food Security Authority (EFSA); in December 2015 it was included in the UNESCO Creative Cities network as City for Gastronomy, and it’s also the Italian Capital of Culture 2020+2021.