Strategically located in the Po Valley, Parma is one of the most dynamic centres in the Emilia-Romagna Region, ranked in the top cities in Italy for quality of life.
Founded in 183 B.C., its urbanistic development clearly reflects the stratification of the Roman and Medieval times, the Farnese and Bourbon’s dominium and the peculiar vision of Maria Luisa of Austria.
Parma is a multifaceted city, counting on several fields of excellence: arts, food, education and industrial development. It is the birthplace of internationally renowned artists, such as Correggio and Parmigianino, Verdi and Toscanini (each of them celebrated every year by a dedicated music Festival), the engraver Giambattista Bodoni and the film director Bernardo Bertolucci. The city is rich of fine monuments, such as the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Pilotta Museum, the Regio Opera Theatre, and its province is plenty of beauties, from castles to hills, to thermal sites. This cultural excellence was recognised by the title of “Italian Capital of Culture 2020-21”.
Its gastronomical traditions, made worldwide famous by Parmesan cheese and ham, lead Parma to the title of “UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy” and the city also hosts the European Food Safety Authority – EFSA.
As a university city, Parma attracts every year thousands of students willing to live in an open and forward-looking community ready to support them in their personal growth. The attention to youth is the focus of “European Youth Capital 2027” project, for which the city is currently running in the final top 5 candidates.
The entrepreneurial sector represents a crucial asset, with a number of multi-national companies operating in agri-food, pharmaceutical and high-tech fields, that actively contribute to support the city’s goals in terms of climate neutrality, social justice and inclusion. Most of them signed in 2023 the Parma Climate City Contract, being the city part of the EU Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”.
