Parma

A Bronze Age settlement of the terramare people stood here, and the city was probably founded and named by the Etruscans, whose word for a round shield, parma, the Romans borrowed. Rome established its colony in 183 BC, the same year as Modena, at the junction of the Via Aemilia and the Via Claudia, with a forum on today's Piazza Garibaldi. Destroyed in 43 BC and rebuilt by Augustus, it was sacked by Attila and later by Totila, served the Byzantines as Chrysopolis, the "Golden City", and in the Middle Ages became a stage on the pilgrims' Via Francigena.

A self-governing commune from about 1140, Parma generally sided with the emperors, though it defeated Frederick II's siege in 1248. Lordships and Milanese rule followed, then in 1545 the Farnese pope Paul III made Parma and Piacenza a duchy for his son, Pier Luigi Farnese. The family ruled until 1731 and built the Pilotta, the Teatro Farnese and the Cittadella. The Bourbons followed: under the minister Guillaume du Tillot the Palatine Library, the picture gallery, the botanic garden and Giambattista Bodoni's royal printing works were founded.

Napoleon annexed Parma to France; the duchy was restored after his fall, passed back to the Bourbons in 1847, and joined the Kingdom of Italy after a plebiscite in 1860. Strong unions led a general strike in 1908, and in August 1922 the people of the Oltretorrente barricaded their streets and drove back Italo Balbo's Fascist squads, an episode seen as the first act of Italian resistance. Allied bombing in 1944 destroyed parts of the Pilotta and almost destroyed the Teatro Farnese, and on 26 April 1945 partisans and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force liberated the city.

Painting gave Parma its golden age. Correggio, who was working in the city by 1516, frescoed the abbess's chamber of San Paolo, the cupola of San Giovanni Evangelista and the cathedral dome, ceilings that changed illusionistic painting, and Parmigianino is the other great painter associated with the city. Benedetto Antelami's baptistery and sculpture are among the great medieval works of northern Italy, and Bodoni's typefaces made the city a name in printing.

Music is the other passion. Giuseppe Verdi was born near Busseto, about thirty kilometres away, and the Teatro Regio stages a Verdi Festival each October; Arturo Toscanini was born in the city in 1867, and the violinist Niccolò Paganini is buried here. Parma's opera audiences are known across Italy for their severity. The city is also associated with the film directors Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci, the poet Attilio Bertolucci and the writer Giovannino Guareschi.

Food is a matter of civic identity: Parma is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy and the seat of the European Food Safety Authority. In sport, Parma Calcio plays in Serie A at the Tardini, the Zebre rugby union club competes in one of the top international club competitions, and the Parma Panthers American football team inspired John Grisham's novel Playing for Pizza.

About 200,000 people live in Parma, the second city of Emilia-Romagna, and about a fifth of them were born abroad, most often in Moldova, Albania, the Philippines, Tunisia or Romania. The university, one of the oldest in the world, brings a student population to the centre.

The economy is prosperous and built around food. Barilla is based in the city, Parmalat is another of its food multinationals, the countryside produces Parmigiano Reggiano and Parma ham, and the province's "Food Valley" companies sit alongside the pharmaceutical firm Chiesi and the European Food Safety Authority. Parma's politics have been less predictable than its region's: centre-right mayors governed from 1998 to 2011, leaving heavy debts, and in 2012 it elected the first Five Star Movement mayor of a provincial capital.

Daily life moves at a comfortable pace: bicycles in the centre, shopping on Strada Garibaldi, an evening aperitivo and walks in the Ducal Park or the Cittadella. The Oltretorrente keeps a more popular, mixed character than the elegant east bank. Winters bring fog and opera, and summers are hot and muggy.

Two of Italy's most famous products carry the city's name. Prosciutto di Parma, a protected air-dried ham, is made only from pigs' hind legs, sea salt and lard; it has a slightly nutty flavour, sometimes credited to the Parmesan whey fed to the pigs. Parmigiano Reggiano, made in the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia, is the protected hard cheese the world calls Parmesan.

Parma claims its own stuffed pastas. Anolini in brodo are small filled pasta served in broth, and tortelli d'erbetta are filled with greens. Tortelli are made across Emilia-Romagna and neighbouring regions, and come square, half-moon or folded into rounded shapes. Torta fritta, fried dough, is eaten as a starter with prosciutto, coppa and the other cured meats of the province, culatello among them.

Wine and the aperitivo matter here as everywhere in Emilia: the evening drink is a city habit, and the trattorias of the Oltretorrente serve the everyday food of the quarter. Food producers just outside the city, from ham curers to cheese dairies, are part of many visits to Parma.