The Long Trip Home: Parma and Modena

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Parma and Modena: a photojournal
by Jackie Goyette

This photo journal by Jackie Goyette contains both photos and prose. All photography was taken by the author, and all prose was written by the author. Click on the images below to open Jackie's photo journal in a new window.

August was a hot month in Italy. A heat wave in Europe caused it to be one of the hotttest summers in years, and my friends and I were stuck with no air conditioning in the small town of Macerata, not far from the Adriatic coast. We decided a trip was in order--one to take us north, hopefully far from the heat. We chose Emilia Romagna, the decidedly famous food-lovers region of Italy, and two cities therein: Parma and Modena.

Escaping the heat turned out to be fruitless--it might have been hotter in Emilia Romagna than at home--but we kept on anyway, vowing to spend as much time in the shade as possible. Parma, famous for its legendary Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and other culinary delights, was also home to a beautiful duomo, rows of colorful palaces, and a huge green park where we chose to start an afternoon waterfight, to cool down of course.

In the evening, we caught a train to Modena to find a cobblestoned piazza rich with bicyclers, a beautiful Romanesque church, lots of porticoed streets, and the sweet silence of the day coming to an end. Modena's famous balsamic vinegar was everywhere and, needless-to-say, we ate well that night.

This photojournal moves through these two cities with the ease of our days there. The colors of Emilia Romagna shine not only in the pink stones of the churches of Modena and Parma, but also in the bright buildings and glowing sunsets that we found along the way.