Today we visited with my cousin Mario, his wife Nicetta, and one of their two daughters, Silvia who is my age.
Our morning was spent quietly at our apartment, then we made our way to the bus station to take the bus to Fontanellato, a little town outside of Parma, home to arguably the area's best castle. After some confusion about busstops and times, we managed to get a bus and arrived about three quarters of an hour later than planned for lunch.
Nicetta had set a lovely table. We began with local salume, olives, pickled mushrooms, and various canapés. Next was hand made tortellini, the best I've had so far, followed by a creamy lasagna. Then was time for the meat: roasted veal. Luckily, the girls could beg off because they had already eaten so well. They went out on the balcony to play
with the cat Luna while we continued to eat and visited a little. We ended the meal with fruit salad and icecream.
Silvia, whom I had spent so much time with last visit, took us on a little walking tour of the town. We began at the monastery church,
where the girls picked up pamphlets, which they gleefully planned to give to their friends from school. I'm not sure how much their friends would appreciate them, but the papers kept them busily chattering and planning for most of our walk.
We had a quick coffee then headed to the castle. It wasn't open for tours, but Silvia did manage to convince someone who works there to show us the mirror room: it was built in the late 19th century in what had once been the dungeon. There, a series of prisms and mirrors were concocted to project the image of the outside piazza, in real time, onto the screens within - a nearly magical feat back then.
We walked around a bit more, stopped in a parkto let the girls run
around a bit, then headed back to their house. My reunion with Silvia, though short lived, reminded me of what fun we had a decade ago, chatting about all manner of things. We had lost touch, but not again, she vowed, now that she has email. I hope we do keep in touch.
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