Parma

Italy / Emilia-Romagna / Parma /
 city, municipality
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it.
It is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in Italy. Parma is divided in two parts by the little stream with the same name. The Italian poet Attilio Bertolucci (born in a hamlet in the countryside) wrote: "As a capital city, it had to have a river. As a little capital, it received a stream, which is often dry".
The city was most probably founded and named by the Etruscans, for a parma (circular shield) was a Latin borrowing, as were many Roman terms for particular arms, and Parmeal, Parmni and Parmnial are names that appear in Etruscan inscriptions. Diodorus Siculus (XXII, 2,2; XXVIII, 2,1) reported that the Romans had changed their rectangular shields for round ones, imitating the Etruscans. Whether the Etruscan encampment was so named because it was round, like a shield, or whether its situation was a shield against the Gauls to the north, is more a matter of choice.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parma
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   44°47'47"N   10°18'58"E

Comments

  • if you are in Parma, do not you forget to visit a local restaurant to eat carbonara and lasagna with carpaccio and prosciutto as an antipasto.