A Couple Quiet Days in the Italian Countryside

On the suggestion of our friend Elizabeth (aka E-Beth), who had spent a month in Europe with her boyfriend Miles last Spring, we decided to spend a few days at a bed and breakfast outside Parma after we said goodbye to the Bells in Rome.  Run down from constantly being on the move, I developed a nasty head cold, so a few days in the quiet countryside sounded perfect to me.   Dalla Nonna Maria ended up being just what the doctor ordered. Jeff and I spent our first two days at the bed and breakfast just taking it easy. We only left the B&B to take some short strolls around the area and to get dinner.

There is very little around the B&B and most of what is there was closed for August (everything in Italy is closed for August), so on our first night there, our wonderful host, Iuri, suggested we go to the Polka festival to get dinner.  While the idea of a Polka festival in and of itself is not exactly the most appealing idea, we were excited to have the cultural experience. 

The blaring accordion music made the festival easy to find.  Figuring our how to order food, however, was not so easy.   After paying our entrance fee, Jeff and I walked around salivating as we watched all the locals feasting on all sorts of yummy meats and bread. We watched as volunteers busily went to and fro, bringing dishes of food to the tables and carrying dirty dishes away.  Despite our best efforts, we could not tell how people were actually ordering all this wonderful food.  So after walking around the small festival for a good twenty minutes, we finally had to ask someone for help.  Sheepishly, Jeff went up to one of the volunteers working at the festival and asked him if he spoke English.  The man shook his head and proceeded to loudly ask around him if anyone spoke English.  I was so embarrassed.  He was, however, able to find one young man who spoke enough English to explain the ordering process to us.  After fumbling a bit more with our very limited Italian, we finally made it to a table with our drinks (coke for Jeff and a 5 euro bottle of yummy Lambrusco wine for me), where we eagerly awaited our meals. Once we were done with our wonderful food we walked closer to the stage and watched as the older members of the community happily danced to the music.

We had such a good time at the festival our first night, we decided to go there again for dinner the following evening. Seasoned pros from the night before, we ordered our food with no difficulty.  As we sat and enjoyed our food and all the activity going on around us, Jeff and I agreed that it was experiences like this - authentic experiences - that are what this trip was all about.