Parma with John Grisham

In 2007 the american writer John Grisham chose Parma as the main setting for his novel Playing for pizza: the story of an american football player with a career ruined, whose agent finds him a second chance as a quarterback for the Panthers of Parma. The impact with the city for Rick Dockery, main character of the novel, is very strong: a small treasure chest of history, tradition and gastronomy, that finds a place in Rick’s heart, used to big cities and huge stadiums.

If you wish to live Parma as in the novel by Grisham, just walk along the cobblestoned streets of the historical center: Via Garibaldi, Piazzale della Pilotta, Piazza Duomo and Piazza Garibaldi, strada Farini and via Linati, elegant and quiet road where the main character has his apartment.

During his stay in Parma, Rick Dockery esxplores also the Oltretorrente, the district over the river, where bars, pubs and cafes make the area very lively and animated.

The Lanfranchi stadium is located north of the historical center and it’s actually a rugby fortress, but it’s the place where Rick finds again his love for football and where the Panthers used to play, now the championship takes place at the Tardini Stadium, where the Parma soccer team usually plays.

While the quarterback is fascinated by playing not for fame or money but for a pizza after the matches and by the beauty of the city so easygoing and quiet, in Parma he’s also catched by the food like everyone else, cause he discovers the tastes of Parma: the world known Parma Ham and Parmigiano cheese, the anolini, the Culatello and lasagne, the Lambrusco wine and tortelli.
The places where Rick and the Panthers get together to eat these delicacies are sometimes made up by the author, as the Cafè Montana, and sometimes real, as the famous trattorias “Sorelle Picchi”, on Strada Farini, and “Al Tribunale” on vicolo Politi or the Pizzeria Il Polipo marino on Via La Spezia, now named La perla.