17 Sep Parma: artistic, historical and cultural fascination

This time with our column about the possible incentive destinations around Milan we see a peculiar location: Parma. The city is renowned all over the world for its extraordinary gastronomical heritage. Many are the delicacies belonging to its menu, like the famous Prosciutto di Parma. No wonder the city has come to be known as the Food Valley, like its IT counterpart in California. Here we find the best culinary culture going side by side with an extraordinary architectonical richness, like we can see in the photo to the right with the splendid Romanesque Cathedral and the Orthogonal Baptistery. Let’s give a look at this tantalizing location.

Extraordinary Richness

But how can we organize our team building so than we can know such a cultural richness in an engaging manner? Treasure Hunt and Urban Game are the main formats that suit us just fine, but let us remember another team building particularly suitable for this type of location: Movie Making Team Building. With a low engagement in terms of costs and time and involving also numerous persons at a time, we can motivate the staff with one of the most captivating formats in the panorama of incentive activities.

Parma’s Uniqueness: Nature

But what makes Parma so unique as team building location? The reply is immediate: the possibility at the same time of drawing on the extraordinary cultural wealth and the unprecedented naturalistic and gastronomic heritage. As example of the naturalistic wealth we remember the “Regional Park Boschi di Carrega”, unique for its vegetal and animal communities. Mostly composed by woods of chestnuts, oaks and conifers, the park is interrupted here and there by small torrents, lakes and grasslands, where we can admire an extraordinary fauna coming from the local plains and mountains. In the park we also find the “Officinal Garden”, with 33 species of medicinal and aromatic plants, and the “Garden of Birds”, with three shelters utilized to practice bird watching. In the neighboring Tuscan-Emilian Apennines we recommend the “Parco dei Cento Laghi”, characterized by the presence of numerous lakes scattered through the territory. Easily accessible from Ladgei, the park is the ideal tourist destination for trekking lovers and can be reached by using the local chairlift or following the mountain paths. Noteworthy is also the Lago Santo, the biggest of the region, overlooked by Monte Sterpara: a perfect point from which admire the water basin covered by ice during winter. All this represents a perfect location for the already mentioned Orienteering Team Building and for its adventurous variation: Survival Team Building.  Guided by a trainer and without reference points or equipments, the participants have to find their way back using their skills of de-specialization and improvisation and exploiting  their own personal resources.

Parma’s Uniqueness: Gastronomy

As to the gastronomic culture, as we have already said Parma offers an incredibly vast culinary panorama for our incentive experience, as a real Food Valley should do. A tour through this valley allows us to get acquainted with some of the gems of this gastronomic richness. Passing through Borgotaro we encounter the famous “Fungo Porcino”, followed by the no less notorious “Tartufo Nero” in Calestano. Then we come across the “Salami di Zibello and Felino”, the “Spalla Cotta” in San Secondo, and the “Prosciutto di Parma” in Polesine Parmese, four legendary names of the Italian gastronomical culture. Do we want to taste together the flavors of these delicacies? To use them to prepare an exceptional dish with exceptional ingredients? Let’s get fun together then with one of the formats from our Cooking Team Building series: cooking as incentive tool and team building modality with fun, love and imagination.

What we have seen so far is but a glimpse of the beauty of Parma in terms history, art, gastronomy and nature. Before ending, we just want to see some hamlet around the city, no less rich in historical and architectural elements. Let’s remember Bardi, dominated by its massive castle, perfect example of medieval siege architecture, or Busseto, birth city of Giuseppe Verdi, with a square, a theatre and two exhibitions dedicated to the great Italian composer. There is even an auditorium under his name, where it is possible to organize meetings and congresses, renowned per its acoustic excellence and if necessary also used as TV stage.

What are you waiting for then? Contact us and let us discover together this jewel of the Italian cultural heritage.