From Parma to Ferrara

*** Not much food in this one

After having a huge meal in Piacenza we drove back to the Agritourismo to find out that they had moved us to a smaller room! Apparently, they had reservations for a fairly large family who had booked a small room. We were told that they had tried to contact us, but were unsuccessful……and just decided to move us to a smaller room. Hmmm……well, at least they only charged us half the price for our "new" room….which unfortunately, was in the main building and was really loud….well, whatever. We did manage a nap and woke when folks started heading out for the evening. Still not hungry, we decided to head on back to Parma. I still had my parking stub from the previous day and we managed to find parking in basically the exact same spot, so I didn't have to pay.

We crossed at Ponte di Mezzo and noticed that folks below at Piazza Ghiaia were having a good old time.

As we walked down the stairs I cracked up……it appears that they were having some kind of American themes "50's" night……check out the billboards in the arcade area!

And of course the food trucks were serving burgers……

Among other things.

Our favorite part was watching the band and the folks dancing.

In some ways it seemed like a celebration of being American, in a way we don't really do anymore. It was a lot of fun……

Soon enough we headed back to our room and crashed, awaking the next morning before anyone…..

Grabbing some breakfast and then heading out.

Had things been perfectly timed, it would have been logical to head to Modena next. However, because of some critical dinner reservations, there was an extra night. So, I decided that we might enjoy spending a night in Ferrara. I got us a very nice room right outside the city walls….with parking. The woman who ran the B&B was so nice and the room was huge. It was just a short walk into the city.

Remember how I mentioned that Piacenza was pretty empty on Easter and we were told that folks liked to get out of big cities on holidays? Well, I think most of them were here.

Ferrara itself is quite stunning….more on that in a future post. The entire center of town was a market on this day….and we bought a few gifts.

And perhaps should have bought a few more?

The city is quite beautiful.

And charming. Piazza Trento e Trieste is pretty much the main square in Ferrara, right in front of the Cathedral. This is where we saw what might be our favorite street performer of all time, a puppeteer, who just had the Missus mesmerized, with his performance of a dog trying to impress his "love" to Louie Armstrong's version of La Vie en Rose.

Other dogs passing by would start barking at the puppet…..the gestures, the movement….the "pooch" even got scolded for peeing once….all while trying to impress his "lady friend". We gave this guy 2 Euros and he probably deserved more. When I went to put the coins in his container I noticed that it was almost full! This puppeteer was that good.

Here are a couple of excerpts.

We still watch these every so often. Hope you enjoy them!

And thanks for stopping by!