Given most European cities have been in existence for so long, it’s a bet someone famous lived within or traveled through the city limits at one point in time. Parma is a great example.

I’ve only visited Parma once but I would go back in a heartbeat because there is so much history to explore there. And one of the strongest literary figures to have lived there is none other than Petrarch. I know what you must be thinking: human suffering and unrequited love not the obvious reason to visit the Italian town lauded for the best prosciutto and Parmesan cheese in the world!

Though I enjoyed more than my fair share of these gastronomic marvels, one of my greatest pleasures was spending three days channeling the despondent state of mind for which Petrarch, one of the town’s most famous former residents, is known. Credited with inventing the modern sonnet and responsible for the second longest love obsession in the history of mankind—only Dante’s pining for Beatrice eclipsed Petrarch’s infatuation for Laura—the fourteenth-century literary heavyweight lived in Parma off and on as an adult. I love unearthing facts like this that fuel literary adventures in towns far and wide.