Parma in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Parma covers 20 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Parma rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Parma Cathedral: Parma Cathedral is a supreme example of Romanesque architecture in northern Italy, built in the 12th century and famous above all for Correggio's breathtaking fresco of the Assumption of the Virgin in the dome, a revolutionary achievement in illusionistic ceiling painting.
2. Baptistery of Parma: The Baptistery of Parma is an octagonal pink Verona marble building begun by Benedetto Antelami in 1196, considered one of the most important medieval buildings in Italy for its extraordinary programme of biblical relief sculptures and its eight-sided architecture that bridges the Romanesque and Gothic styles.
3. Camera di San Paolo: Correggio's First Frescoes: The Camera di San Paolo is a small, intimate room in the former Benedictine convent of San Paolo, decorated in 1518-19 by Correggio with his first major commission, a celebrated illusionistic fresco of a vine-covered pergola with putti, in the private dining room of the learned Abbess Giovanna da Piacenza.
4. Galleria Nazionale: National Gallery: The Galleria Nazionale inside Parma's Palazzo della Pilotta houses one of the finest art collections in northern Italy, including Leonardo da Vinci's mysterious La Scapigliata, major works by Correggio and Parmigianino, and a comprehensive collection documenting Parma's remarkable artistic heritage.
5. Palazzo della Pilotta: The Palazzo della Pilotta is the vast, deliberately incomplete Farnese ducal palace that dominates Parma's historic centre, a monument to ambition never fully realised, housing the Galleria Nazionale, the Teatro Farnese, and the Palatine Library in its massive brick walls.

Afternoon

1. Teatro Farnese: The 1628 Wooden Theatre: The Teatro Farnese inside the Palazzo della Pilotta is one of the most remarkable early theatre buildings in the world, a vast wooden U-shaped auditorium built in 1618-28 that pioneered the modern theatre form, featuring the first permanent stage with a proscenium arch in Italy, and capable of flooding the stage for aquatic spectacles.
2. Parmigiano-Reggiano Dairy Visit: A visit to a traditional Parmigiano-Reggiano cooperative dairy near Parma offers an intimate look at the production of one of the world's greatest cheeses, where about 16 litres of milk are needed for each kilogram, and wheels must age for a minimum of 24 months before being cracked open.
3. Prosciutto di Parma: Prosciutto di Parma is the world's most celebrated dry-cured ham, produced exclusively in the hills around Langhirano south of Parma, where the Apennine air-cured pork legs hang in traditional curing houses for 18 to 30 months, protected by the crown brand of the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma.
4. Giuseppe Verdi's Birthplace: Le Roncole: The small village of Le Roncole near Busseto, about 35 kilometres northwest of Parma, is the birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, born here on 10 October 1813 in a modest family inn, and destined to become the most important Italian composer of the 19th century and arguably the defining voice of Italian opera.
5. Teatro Regio di Parma: The Teatro Regio di Parma, inaugurated in 1829, is one of Italy's great opera houses, celebrated for its exceptionally demanding Parma audience (the loggionisti) whose vocal and exacting standards have terrified and inspired generations of singers, and home to the prestigious annual Festival Verdi.

Day 2

Morning

1. Piazza del Duomo: The Piazza del Duomo in Parma is considered one of the finest Romanesque cathedral squares in Italy, a magnificent ensemble of the Cathedral, the octagonal pink Baptistery, and the Bishop's Palace, all of medieval construction, forming a serene and architecturally coherent urban composition.
2. Piazza Garibaldi & Palazzo del Governatore: Piazza Garibaldi is the lively central square of Parma, dominated by the beautiful Palazzo del Governatore with its distinctive pink facade and astronomical clock, the social and commercial heart of the city since Roman times and still the place where Parma comes to promenade, gather, and celebrate.
3. Parma's Covered Market: Parma's covered daily market near the city centre is where the city's food culture comes to life, stalls laden with aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, paper-thin prosciutto, culatello, mortadella, fresh pasta, and the seasonal produce of the Po Valley, patronised by Parma's famously discerning residents.
4. Toscanini Birthplace Museum: The birthplace of Arturo Toscanini, born in Parma on 25 March 1867 and destined to become the most celebrated orchestral conductor of the 20th century, is preserved as a small museum in the city centre, documenting his extraordinary career at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, and NBC Symphony Orchestra.
5. Parma Violets Tradition: Parma is uniquely associated with the viola odorata, the sweet violet, whose cultivation as the city's emblem dates from the Farnese period and reached its peak under Marie Louise of Austria, giving Parma a distinctive perfumery tradition, candied violets, and a colour, Parma violet, that is recognised worldwide.

Afternoon

1. ALMA Culinary School at Colorno: ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine, is based in the Reggia di Colorno, a magnificent Baroque palace known as the 'Versailles of Parma', 15 kilometres north of the city, and is considered the most prestigious culinary academy in Italy, training the next generation of Italian chefs in the world's greatest food region.
2. Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale: Fontanellato is a small medieval town 18 kilometres west of Parma dominated by the magnificent water-encircled Rocca Sanvitale castle, which contains an extraordinary room frescoed by Parmigianino in 1524, the Diana and Actaeon room, a masterpiece of Mannerist illusionistic painting almost unknown outside Italy.
3. Culatello di Zibello: The King of Italian Salumi: Culatello di Zibello is considered by many to be the finest cured meat in Italy, a rare, intensely flavoured salume made from the heart of the pork leg, aged for 14-36 months in the distinctively foggy wine cellars of the Po river towns around Zibello, northwest of Parma.
4. Nocino & Local Drinks of Parma: Parma's drinks culture is as distinctive as its food, centred on nocino (a bitter-sweet walnut liqueur made by infusing unripe green walnuts in spirit), Lambrusco (the lightly sparkling red wine perfect for cutting through Parma's rich salumi), and the local Fortana and Malvasia wines of the Parma hills.
5. Parma: UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy: Parma was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015, the first Italian city to receive this designation, in recognition of the extraordinary concentration of premium food products, culinary heritage, food education institutions, and living food culture that makes this small city one of the world's foremost gastronomic capitals.

Full Parma guide and all stops →