2015 Italy Trip, Day Three and Four – in Parma, Italy

Before exploring the city, day three commenced with a lovely mid morning breakfast at a restaurant a block down from our apartment. Breakfast consisted of sampling various cakes, pastries, cheeses, Prosciutto and the lightest scrambled eggs I’ve ever enjoyed. 

We found ourselves at the Palazzo della Pilotta, a three minute walk from the Duomo, and less than ten from our apartment. Each of the buildings in the Palazzo were damaged in the spring of 1944 by Allied bombing (the Allies were bombing the rail yards a little more than a half a mile away and some bombers dropped their loads short of the rail yards). The bombs destroyed the Church of St. Peters, severely damaged the Teatro Farnese that was built in 1618 and destroyed one of the wings of the city’s grand library the Biblioteca Palatina. It took decades to raise the necessary funds to restore and rebuild the grand Baroque theatre, it is was rebuilt and opened in 1962. Since the wooden Teatro Farnese has been hosting concerts and plays since.

Our first stop was the Biblioteca Palatina, a rare book library still in use today. Walking through the collection of books, many going back 500 to 1,000 years, was a special moment for both Evie and I. Due to the bombing, a portion of the collection was lost. When looking at the outside of the library one can see the damaged wall. The wall in its damaged state has been preserved as a reminder of what history can be destroyed by a war.

After looking at the collection in the one wing, I sat in the reading room taking in the atmosphere, wishing I could gain permission to open some of the books and spend more time in the library. Alas after sitting in the reading room surrounded by shelves of ancient books the librarian’s throaty grunt informed us that it was time for us to leave.

From the library we visited the Archeological Museum and then Teatro Farnese. The Farnese is open to the public only for a few hours each morning. When they rebuilt it they followed the original plans as they carefully restored to help preserve their history and culture. Along with one other couple we were given freedom to wonder around…the only thing that we were prohibited from doing was climbing up to the top of the theater.           

Early afternoon found us in Piazza Garibaldi and watching the various neighborhoods parade in for the Medieval Festival. Behind their banners, each neighborhood paraded into the heart of the city with their musicians and flag wavers dressed in colors. Behind each musical group followed a parade of people attired in their medieval attire.

After taking in the festivities in the Piazza Garibaldi (the city hall square) we returned to the Duomo for another visit followed by going into the Baptistery next to the Duomo. Through to modern times you could not go into the church unless first you had been baptized…hence the separate building and its primary focus and function. I found the artwork and the Baptistery as a whole was intriguing.      

For the last full day in Parma we wondered the city, exploring the neighborhoods and parks. One of the stops was the Parco Ducal and the Ducal Palace. The large park is located across the river from the medieval city and contains the grand palace built in the late 1500s and today is the home of the military police. The park is vast, with a large pond and a lovely reasonably priced snack bar.

We were not impressed with the river...it was mostly dry and weedy. Having an apartment with a river view would not be a premium view in our minds.

Also, we spent 15 minutes or so visiting a grocery store to check out the selection and the prices. On the whole the prices were comparable to those we see in Fairfax. Rent for a one bedroom furnished apartment in the old town is in the E550 – 680.

On our final evening as we enjoyed dining all’aperto, Evie and I agreed that we liked the city, found it to be as affordable as many average size towns in the USA, and we could see ourselves more than content as a home base for a year or two.

A Sobbering Letter

The following taken from June Wandrey's, a WWII nurse, letter home regarding what she saw after a German Concentration Camp was liberated the American Army. The quote is taken from Bedpan Commando, The Story of a Combat Nurse during WWII I have just finished reading the book.


6-4-45 Allach, Germany

Dearest family, I'm on night duty with a hundred corpse-like patients, wrecks of humanity...macerated skin drawn over their bones, eyes sunken in wide sockets, hair shaved off. Mostly Jewish, these tortured souls hardly resemble humans. Their bodies are riddled with diseases. Many have tuberculosis, typhus, enterocolitis (constant diarrhea) and huge bed sores. Many cough all night long, as their lungs are in such terrible condition. They break out in great beads of perspiration.

Then there is the roomful of those that are incontinent and irrational. It sounds like the construction crew for the tower of Babel...Poles, Czechs, Russians, Slavs, Bulgarians, Dutch, Hungarians, Germans. What makes it so difficult is that I understand only a few words. Their gratitude tears at my heart when I do something to make them more comfortable or give them a little food or smile at them.

One of the day nurses had a patient that kept leaving his cot and crawling under it to sleep on the bare wooden floor. She decided to put his mattress, sheets and pillow under there too as it seemed to be his favorite place.

The odor from the lack of sanitation over the years makes the whole place smell like rotten, rotten sewage. We wear masks constantly, though they don't keep out the stench. There are commodes in the middle of the room. Patients wear just pajama shirts as they can't get the bottoms down fast enough to use the commodes. God, where are you? Making rounds by flashlight is an eerie sensation. I'll hear calloused footsteps shuffling behind me and turn in time to see four semi-nude skeletons gliding toward the commodes. God, where were you?

You have to gently shake some of the patients to see if they are still alive. Their breathing is so shallow, pulse debatable. Many die in their sleep. I carry their bodies back to a storage room, they are very light, just the weight of their demineralized bones. Each time, I breathe a wee prayer for them. God, are you there? In the morning the strongest patients have latrine detail, it takes two of them to carry a commode pail and dump it. They also sweep the floors and carry out the trash. Many patients are only seventeen. Our men sprayed the camp area to kill the insects that carried many of the diseases.

We were told that the SS guards who controlled the camp used to bring a small pan of food into the ward and throw it on the floor. When the stronger patients scrambled for it, like starving beasts, they were lashed with a long whip. It's a corner of hell.

Too shocked and tired to write anymore. Love, June

What is sobbering, is that such suffering can happen today. The type of hearts that created this suffering still walk amongst us. We still have groups being demonized and dehumanized.