Heading Home

Well, the fun is over folks. I going to spend a few minutes writing up some final thoughts before I get to packing. My flight is out of Milano Malpsensa tomorrow at 10am, which means I'm on the first train out of Parma at 5:20. It's going to be brutal.
Today I tied up a few loose ends tourist-wise and I think now I can say I've seen Parma. First order of business was to go to Casa del Suono (House of Sound), which is this musuem located in an old church that documents the history of recorded sounds and it's technology. They had all kinds of cool stuff, gramophones, phonographs, radios, turntables, tube amps; it was awesome! The highlight of the musuem was what they called the White Room (no, it didn't have black curtains) and the Sonic Chandelier.
The White Room is this room designed around this Wave Field Synthesis, which using 189 speakers positioned along the perimeter of the room, creates a two-dimentional sonic field. They played a piece of music by Monteverdi which was recorded in four locations: the opera theater in Parma, a house, the theater at the Museum of Opera across the street, and at the York Minster Cathedral. As the track switched between the locations seemlessly, it was incredible to notice the difference. It was an audiophiles dream.
The Sonic Chandelier was kind of stupid, if you ask me. It is bascially this dome made up of 224 speakers that is suspended in the copula of the church. They played a bunch of sounds that swirled around the ring of speakers, which was cool I guess, but I'd rather hear music. It looked cool though. Imagine looking up at 224 speaker cones. Unforuntaly, I could not take photos in the musuem.
Next was the Museum of Opera across the street. Opera has a rich tradition in Parma. There are two historic opera houses here. When many think of Italian Opera, they think of La Scala in Milano, which is gigantic. However, Giusseppe Verdi debuted many of his most famous operas here in his "hometown" of Parma. Richard Wager spent a lof of time here a well. The museum was as interesting as a museum about opera could be. Lots of playbill, posters, phtotos, etc. Again, no photos allowed.

My final stop, after eating my final cone of gelato, was the Pallazzo, to check out the Teatro Farnese. It was the original opera house, located in the old palace. It was mostly destroyed during bombing raids during WWII, and being built almost entirely of wood, they basically just built the whole thing again. It's an exact replica. I guess you'd call it a restoration of sorts, but from the photos I saw, the place was really messed up. But, since it's completion in 1962, it is beautiful again. Practically the entire place is made of wood. It's a trim carpenter's dream (Dad). Interestingly, the stage is pitched pretty severely towards the audience. I don't know what that's about.

So that was my day. Of course, it's only half past five, but I've got a lot of stategic packing to do. Since this was popular last year, I'll do it again:
Best meal I ate: Parmignana di Melanzane, Antica Cerecia, Parma
Best ride: Ride to the sea, La Spezia
Most beautiful scenery: Pretty much anywhere near Lago Maggiore
Best day in general: I have to go with the La Spezia day again. The weather was perfect, the ride was great, the food was great all day.
Worst day in general: The day I rode out of Parma on the busy roads and once I got to the nice roads and hills, it started raining and I had to take the train home after 12 miles. I was really feeling lonely and sad that day.
Favorite people I met: My Sri Lankan friend on my travel day, and the ladies in both the bakeries in Pallanza and Parma that I've gone to almost every day. I didn't meet any Americans on this trip.
Best gelato: Grom, hands down the best Gelato I've ever had.
Best bakery: The bakery that I don't think even had a name in Pallanza.
Best pizza: Technically I only ate two pizze this whole trip. One in Pallanza was outstanding actually. But better yet, the focaccia, of couse Bakery Princi in Milano. It doesn't get better than that!
Worst food I ate: Tortelli errbette con funghi porcini, some place in Parma that was not so good
Favorite market: I was really disappointed with the lack of markets in Parma, the best I visited was that really big one in Intra, but considering I'm coming home without a new belt, I really missed SanLorenzo market in Firenze this year!
Favorite thing I bought here: Balsamic from Modena, I can't wait to open those bottles when I get home.
Thing I wish I could have bought:, but didn't or couldn't: a leather belt made in Itay.
Best road I cycled: SS62 from Salita to Auello.
Worst road I cycled: Every road between Parma and the hills to the east. Though flying back yesterday on SS62 was pretty awesome!
Favorite off the bike activity: Just all the walking I did. Between Pallanza, Intra and Laveno, between Parma, Modena, and Bologna, and of course Milano, I did a lot of walking this trip.
Most memorable moment of the trip: Crossing the Passo del Ciso into Toscana and flying down the other side. There is something about climbing forever, then knowing that the rest of the ride is downhill that is just inspiring. Doesn't hurt that the scenery was spectacular either. I am really glad I did that ride! It made the whole trip.

As a whole, this trip was a lot different than last year. Although last year's trip was only a week longer, it felt a lot longer. It was much more diverse, I spent a lot more time traveling around, seeing all those big races helped too. And I met a lot of great people. This time around was quiet. It was much more routine. Maybe my getting used to the systems in Italy is making it less and less of an adventure. I don't know, but I still love it. My first time here was truly an adventure. we had no idea where we were going to go, we had no bookings. Last trip was planned out and structured around races and Gran Fondi, but my first time riding in Italy. This time, it was truly a vacation. I was able to turn off, relax, just spend time hanging out. I don't want to make it seem like the trip was in any way a disappointment. Of course last year was really something special. But, I'm feeling like my next trip to Italy has to be to share it. I'll always be discovering more, you can even discover new things just outside your door every day. Now it's time to share it.
For once, I'm ready to come home. Usually, I practically leave Italy kicking and screaming but this time is different. I've always said, if you take a trip to Italy, go to Roma last because you'll be ready to leave as soon as you've arrived. Of course, this time I'm not in Roma, and I'm certainly not sick of Parma. I think in the past I've just been on a quest but now I think I have much to look forward to when I get home. So home, here I come.
Thanks for following along. If anything interesting happens between now and my next trip, I'll be sure to write about it here! Ciao ciao!!