Emilia Romagna: Fast Cars and Slow Food

For lovers of authentic Italian food, no visit to Italy is truly complete without a visit to the Emilia Romagna region. Often overlooked, this region borders Tuscany to the North and is home to the major city of Bologna. While most of the Italian continent is covered with hills and mountains, Emilia Romagna is a region of fertile plains and booming industries.

We arrived in the small city of Modena on a Friday and checked into the Hotel Real Fini on Via Emilia Est. Having booked a suspiciously cheap rate of 63 Euro per night (in June) on Venere.com, I was not expecting much from this four star hotel. However I was pleasantly surprised. The hotel was clean, stylish, well located, and had a great breakfast.

We set right out to do some local sightseeing. Just a short ride from Modena is Marranello, where Ferrari cars are manufactured. We spent an hour at the Ferrari museum tracing the life and work of Enzo Ferrari through his fabulous cars. This tour made it just a slight bit depressing to leave and climb into our otherwise perfectly adequate Fiat.

Heading back to Modena, we decided to pay homage to another local hero: Luciano Pavarotti. His villa with its endless tree-lined drive was just what we expected of the home of this billionaire opera singer. While we didn’t get past the gate, it was enough to just sit there, crank out some “Nessun dorma” on the iPod, and imagine what it would be like to live in the same town as Pavarotti. The people of Modena seem to have mixed emotions about him these days. Once an untouchable lyrical genius, he began to lose face among the Modenese when he left his wife of 36 years to marry Nicoletta Mantovani, 34 years his junior. Compiled with his performances in Modena with their hefty 300+ Euro tickets, the locals started to feel that maybe Luciano had gotten a bit too big for his britches. Now after his passing,  it does seem that the fond memories are the ones that remain and that he will live on forever through his music.

The next day we woke up early and rode over to the neighboring city of Parma. It is no coincidence that the European Union has chosen Parma to be the home of the European Union Food Safety Authority. While food in Rome is nothing to complain about, these guys mean business when it comes to the art of mangiare, so we decided to hire a lovely local guide named Laura to take us around.

Our first stop was a small factory that produces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. According to the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese consortium, this cheese is “a true miracle of nature and of the traditions of the people who produce it. It is for the enjoyment of those who seek in what they eat not only nourishment, but also incredible flavor, love for the earth, and respect – a lot of respect – for nature and its mysteries.” Personally, my respect for this 800 year old tradition had just quadrupled. We watched as they loaded the fresh local milk into the tubs that are then brought to carefully controlled temperatures as master cheese makers transform it into the early stages of Parmigiano Reggiano. It takes 1200 liters of milk to produce one perfect wheel of Parmigano cheese that will weigh in at about 45 kilos. Only 100% natural ingredients are used, no additives or chemicals whatsoever (no wonder Italians recommend it as a first food for babies as they begin eating solids). We then followed our guide as she showed us the various phases of cooling, salting, and seasoning that each wheel of cheese undergoes before it can finally be tested, certified, and stamped “Parmigiano-Reggiano”.

Parmesan cheese is so highly regarded in this region that the Credito Emiliano bank will now take cheese from local producers as collateral for a bank loan. Its air conditioned maximum security vaults hold over 200 million Euro worth of the finest Parmigiano Reggiano.

After a tasting of the various Parmigiano Reggiano products (aged 12 months, 18 months, or 24+ months), we saluted our hosts and followed our guide on date with none other than the Prosciutto di Parma.

The factory chosen for our Prosciutto tour is a medium sized production facility with three main products: Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello, and Culatta. We watched as hundreds of legs of locally raised ham were hauled in, inspected, weighed, massaged, salted, and stored in various refrigerated chambers for specific amounts of time at precisely controlled temperatures. Our guide explained the entire process to us from start to finish (which anecdotally happens to be when the master prosciutto sniffer takes a sharp tool made from the bone of a horse’s leg, stabs the prosciutto in three places, smells the tool, and gives the product a thumbs up or thumbs down). She took us through an endless labyrinth of hanging legs of prosciutto in their various phases of “stagionatura” that was almost comical. While finding our way out of this prosciutto cathedral we worked up a bit of an appetite, just in time for lunch.

The Calicella di Pilastro winery is set amongst a gorgeous backdrop of the Parma countryside. Our hosts graciously served us a light lunch consisting of their own wine (Lambrusco dell’Emilia sparkling red and Malvasia white) which we sampled along with trays of Prosciutto di Parma, Coppa, Parmigiano cheese, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, olives, marinated mushrooms, and crusty bread. Pleasantly full, we sipped an espresso, saluted our guide, and vowed to come back again!

For information about organizing a tour like the one described above, contact us at info(at)wheninrometours.com. To learn more about the Emilia Romagna region, view Emilia Romagna Turismo on Facebook.

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