Parma, Italy - La Greppia

I recently spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in the Italian city of Parma. After a stroll around the town, I ducked into La Greppia for a long, lazy, decadent lunch that lasted several hours. La Greppia is interestingly headed up by an all-female kitchen. This old-fashioned restaurant with just 16 tables and a glass walled kitchen prides itself on impeccable service and local dishes. The most notable feature being the two trolleys that wheel around each table, one filled with the most sinful desserts you've ever seen, and another that carries a wheel of aged parmigiano cheese. 

I was excited to find one of my favorite wines on the menu, which I first discovered in 2003, while living and writing my thesis in Castelfranco Veneto for the MIB School of Management in Trieste, Italy. 

How could we not start the meal off with a plate of local prosciutto di parma:

A side of zucchini is dressed right at your table:

First pasta courses (all entirely handmade) consisted of a spinach and ricotta ravioli in butter and sage with a grating of parmigiano:

And a classic tagliatelle bolognese:

We skipped the meat course and had them trolley over the local parmigiano cheese, matured for 36 months:

The cheese course was followed by a truly formidable dessert cart that had me foaming at the mouth with anticipation. My hardest decision of the day was picking only two desserts, though eating them was considerably easier! 

I landed on a pear crostata with warm chocolate sauce:

... and a zuppa inglese, literally 'English soup', which resembles a trifle and is made with layers of pudding, cream and booze drenched cake:

Some biscuits arrived at the end with our bill: