Travel Information (Airplanes, Trains, ...)

Parma is located in a region called Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy and can be easily reached in several ways.

• Parma does have a small international airport (http://www.parma-airport.it/default.aspx ) with lowcost daily Ryanair and Windjet  fights to and from London Stansted (2h flyght), Rome (1h15) and Sicily (1h20) and Sardinia (1h15). Both Italian cities are excellent choices if you want to spend some time touring either before of after the conference.
• The airport of Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate are, respectively, 170 (2h driving) and 120 km (1h15 driving) away from Parma.
• Bologna airport “Guglielmo Marconi” is 100 km from Parma (1h driving).
• The airports of Milan and Bologna have daily flights to and from the main European cities. 
• High-speed trains operate on the Milan-Bologna route. Parma is 90 km from Bologna (1h by train) and 110 km from Milan (1h15 minutes by train).
• The highway A1 (Autostrada del Sole) links Parma to Milan and to Bologna, Florence, and Rome. 
• The highway A15 connects Parma with La Spezia (and other sea resorts on the beautiful Tyrrhenian Sea on Italy west coast like Viareggio and La Spezia and Cinque Terre – Lerici, Porto Venere, Monterosso, etc.).
• The Adriatic sea (east coast) and other touristic resorts like Rimini and Riccione are only a two hour drive.
• Parma is only 1h 20 driving distance from Milan, 2h from Florence, 1h from Bologna, less than 3h from Venice, 4h from Rome. 

Attendees may wish to prolong the trip in Italy even for a few days to tour many beautiful and culturally-enriched areas of the country.

From Abroad

Our Italian hosts do not recommend flying directly to Parma from Europe or other non-US locations, as it tends to be much more expensive. 

Search suggestion: SkyScanner.net -- excellent for searching all European airlines (even EasyJet, RyanAir, etc.).

Recommended Airports to Fly Into From Abroad:

• Rome (FCO, CIA)
• Milan Linate (LIN) -- only 120 km (1h15 driving) away from Parma 
• Milan Malpensa (MXP) -- only 170km (2h driving) away from Parma 
• Bergamo (sometimes called Milan Orio al Serio) (BGY)
• Bologna (BLQ) -- 100 km from Parma (1h driving)
• Forlì (FRL)
• Parma (PMF)
• Pisa (PSA)

Airlines for Travelling from European airports to Italy and in Italy:

• Meridiana: http://www.meridiana.it/it/index.aspx
• Windjet: http://www.volawindjet.it/
• Blu-Express: http://www.blu-express.com/
• Easyjet: http://www.easyjet.com/
• Ryanair: http://www.ryanair.com/ (has a direct flight to Parma from London - Stansted)
• Air Italy: http://www.airitaly.it/
• AirOne: http://www.alitalia.com/AP_IT/home/index.aspx

European Low-cost airlines:

• Ryanair: http://www.ryanair.com/
• AirBerlin: http://www.airberlin.com/
• AirLingus: http://www.aerlingus.com
• Cimber Sterling: http://www.cimber.com/
• Jet2.com: http://www.jet2.com/
• Vueling.com: http://www.vueling.com/

From the USA

Our Italian hosts suggest that attendees coming from the US should compare flights from USA to Milan or Rome vs. flights that land in big European airports: London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam. From there take a low cost flight (they're very cheap if bought in advance). Low cost companies are: Ryanair, EasyJet, Windjet.

Search strategy. Look on the Italian airport website and find which low cost companies connects with which European airport. Look for prices in their website. Find the lowest ticket that connects the city of departure to that big European airport.  

Low cost companies put limits on baggage (much stricter rules for weight, size, and number of bags than are common in the US airlines) so make sure that you know what to expect and are comfortable with their rules before buying the tickets.

For USA-Europe flights, we recommend trying Kayak and/or SkyScanner. SkyScanner is excellent for searching all European airlines (even EasyJet, RyanAir, etc.).

Parma is connected to all the Italian cities by train. When landing in Italy it is better to take a train to Parma rather than looking for an internal flight. Less expensive and quicker.

Train tickets, if bought on Trenitalia website (www.trenitalia.com) are discounted up to 50% until one month before departure.

This is another extremely useful site for finding all of the trains/schedules/fares for travel within Italy.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm

If you are coming in a small group, or you are planning to visit some other places in Italy, or just to move away from Parma city during the conference, you may want to check the websites of the many international car rental agencies.  The major ones are Avis and Hertz. There are a couple of low cost companies in Italy such as Easy Car (http://www.easycaritalia.com/), Rent.it (http://www.rent.it) or Europcar (http://www.europcar.it/)

Please take into account that most of the cars for rental in Italy are smaller than the ones in the US. Many cities in Italy were built in times where horses and carts and feet were the only means of transportation. Big cars have a difficult life in Italy and if you're not trained to drive on small roads it is better to use cars only to move between cities. Once again, the car is not needed (and uncomfortable) to move in the city and it's better to rely on mass transport systems.

My information may not be 100% accurate, but here goes. There is a main office for "Parma Punto Bici" in viale Toschi 2. This is along the river, on the west side of la Pilotta (building/plazza you can find on any map). I believe you can rent bicycles there, by the day, or set yourself up to do it hourly and drop them off at different places around the city. (My Italian is bad, so I'm not sure if you can do it hourly if you don't pay for an annual membership, etc. To be sure, I'd recommend looking around this site (in Italian) http://www.infomobility.pr.it/index.php?id=14&page=default⟨=it&sezione=elenco_giallo_block Or better yet, ask at the Tourist Office when you arrive in Italy.

Here are some other resources about Free Public Internet Access in Parma, location of hospitals, pharmacies, currency exchange locations (but the automated bank machine is always less expensive), etc. Click here.

If you are in need of a babysitter while in Parma, the city provides the following list. Click here. I inquired with the city to ask them how someone got on this list, and what their qualifications were, and how this all works. They said "Babysitters registered in the list have been qualified by a selection after a training in our nursery schools, but labour contracts are private and the cost must be negotiated directly with the babysitter." There is an email address at the bottom of the list to contact the city.

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