A day in Parma among the wonders of art and the pleasures of healthy eating

For many people the desire to visit the ancient capital of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza arises after reading Stendhal's famous novel, “The Charterhouse of Parma”. The romantic atmospheres of the book, including the scenes in which Fabrizio Del Dongo, imprisoned in the Farnese Tower, feels enraptured at being able to admire from his cell not only the chain of the Alps but also a window where the woman of his desires occasionally appears, have made millions of people dream. Arriving in Parma, a city crossed by the stream of the same name and inhabited since the Bronze Age, the first monument we start looking for is precisely the Certosa. To our great surprise, we find two of them. The complex of the Certosa di San Girolamo, known as the Certosa di Parma, in the San Lazzaro district, was for half a millennium a monastery of Carthusians.

The abbey that actually inspired Stendhal's novel is however another one: the Certosa di Paradigna, built from 1298 and also known as the Abbey of Valserena or of San Martino de' Bocci. Approaching the historic centre, we discover that the city was surrounded by ancient walls and some of the gates are still well preserved. Among them the most important is the Porta San Francesco, built in 1261, through which pilgrims heading to Rome along the Via Francigena left the city. Historically the defence of Parma was also entrusted to the Cittadella. Inside the great sixteenth-century fortress, today it is the children who play at being knights in the large equipped green space. Before visiting Parma, Marcel Proust had imagined it as “smooth, compact, mauve and soft”: adjectives that are all borne out in admiring the historic palazzi and the countless religious buildings.

Among them the most important is the Duomo, considered among the greatest works of Romanesque architecture in Italy, famous also for its dome, painted by Correggio. Beside the bell tower we admire the stunning Baptistery in pink marble, the meeting point between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. A little further off, between the Campanile and the Baptistery, one glimpses the Abbey of San Giovanni Evangelista, a Benedictine complex whose dome is also frescoed by Correggio. During our walk between the historic centre and the Oltretorrente district, we also visit the church of the S.S. Annunziata, with its elliptical shape, but there is also the Church of Santa Maria del Quartiere, from 1619, in the shape of a hexagonal prism and with the dome frescoed by Pier Antonio Bernabei, depicting Paradise.

After this lovely walk through Parma's history, an exquisite dinner awaits us at the Ristorante Apriti Sesamo, on via Monte Corno. The idea of booking at this bioenergetic restaurant had come to us thanks to our vegan friends, and it proved a valuable opportunity for all of us to discover a concept of eating that puts health at its centre without for that reason giving up the pleasures of good food. We settle into the spacious room in sunny colours, near a shelf full of books and magazines on nature, cooking and organic farming. Starting to study the menu, we chat with the owner Antonella Fusco, who has run the restaurant since 1996. Assisting her in the daily work carried on with great passion are the chef Cosimo De Filippo, known as Mimmo, and his right-hand man Michele Siano.

Besides them, there are the people who every day deliver to your home the dishes ordered by phone or through the restaurant's website, getting around the city with two bicycles and a small methane van. “Our menu, both at lunch and dinner, varies daily according to the fresh produce we find at the market, where we shop every morning early. With this method we manage to bring to the table organic excellence such as, for example, artichokes or genuine Apulian cime di rapa. The restaurant's concept was born from an idea of well-being and health of a holistic kind, which considers the person in their entirety. Precisely for this reason we always use wholegrain products, fundamental from an energetic point of view. It is important to consume foods that still have vitality, such as the whole grain, capable of generating new life.

On the other hand, all refined foods such as sugar or white bread are banned, which I would not hesitate to call drugs,” Mrs Antonella explains to us. To a question of ours as to whether eliminating meat and food of animal origin is a more ethical or health-related choice, the owner replies that besides the ethical factor, one must consider that, unlike animal proteins, everything vegetable is much more digestible. “Animal proteins are difficult to assimilate. Once, when people worked in the fields and lived in cold houses, that kind of diet was adequate, but today it is as useless as it is harmful. The microcosm of the human organism must be considered within the macrocosm in which the individual lives.” We start with a pumpkin velvet soup, and continue with Mediterranean-style millet, while the rest of the group enjoys the exquisite corn pappardelle with vegetable ragù.

Depending on the day, the starter can also be a Jerusalem artichoke and leek velvet soup, and among the first courses we may find artichoke rice mould, cous cous with leeks and olives, buckwheat with red cabbage or spelt fusilli with seitan ragù. The main course, a nice baked tofu cutlet, is accompanied by two tasty side dishes to choose from stewed artichokes and carrots and a creative selection of raw vegetables with Jerusalem artichoke carpaccio. Finally, the sweet temptations certainly cannot be missing, prepared rigorously without eggs, milk, butter or sugar. Instead of sugar, malts are used, for example rice malt, also suitable for coeliacs. The desserts created with this method are healthy, light and utterly delicious.

This time we taste the pumpkin cake and a very good orange mousse that enhances the freshness and energy of the fruit, but on the menu you can also find, depending on the day, desserts such as apple strudel with cinnamon, almond cake or tart with blueberry compote. Our Parma day ends with a few tempting purchases in the restaurant's shop area, full of very particular and rare products, both foods and natural cosmetics, as well as books. Thanks to a very careful selection of items from suppliers the owner has personally known for many years, on the shop's shelves you can find cranberry, physalis and goji berries, cocoa beans, propolis diffusers, but also special oils. A universe of taste and health where it will always be a pleasure to return.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Apriti Sesamo Via Monte Corno, 4 Parma Tel.: 0521/270274