Parma: a leisurely stroll amongst abbeys and beech woods

Looking beyond the city to the surrounding provinces, the province of Parma reveals itself to be a compendium of inner peace. In the heart of the provincial capital, the Monastery of St John the Evangelist houses three cloisters, including the chapter house with its famous frescoes by Correggio, where the silence is broken only by the rhythmic chanting of the Benedictine monks. It takes just a few minutes’ drive to leave the city and immerse oneself in the natural surroundings of the Parco dei Boschi di Carrega, or to take in the sight of the Romanesque parish church of Talignano, built for pilgrims on the Via Francigena in a spot of total digital isolation, not to mention Franco Maria Ricci’s Labirinto della Masone, a vast bamboo maze designed as an experience of meditative disorientation. For those seeking mountain peaks and panoramic views, the journey takes you up to Lago Santo Parmense, the largest glacial lake in the northern Apennines, accessible through a beech forest fragrant with resin and moss. It is a mosaic of water, woodland and spirituality that finds its culmination in the Ghirardi WWF Oasis, where the sounds of the tarmac give way once and for all to the bellowing of stags and the murmur of streams.