Culatello mon amour tour: Culatello visit and Parma flatland!

This experience is more than a simple food tour. It is a dedication of love to Parma’s lowland and its  slow but astonishing craftsmanship.   It will start with a Parmigiano Reggiano factory tour, where you will be able to taste the King of Cheeses and where you will appreciate the subtle differences between the product made here and the one produced on the hills. Quite the striking difference. After this delightful warm up, a visit  in one of the surrounding villages, with their small squares adorned by arcades, historical churches and impressive fortresses: San Secondo, Zibello or  Busseto each with their own history and distinctive features.

We then wander through the foggy cellars that combine with patience and passion to bring us a product whose taste is unforgettable: the Culatello! Our guided visit to a Culatello factory unveils all the secrets of its production, from the very beginning right to your palate. To be able to watch every step, make sure you visit a Culatello factory at the right time of year – avoid summer, when the climate is not suitable for processing the fresh meat. At the end of the Culatello tour, the tasting cannot be  amiss. The experience will enable you  to understand why it is named the King of Charcuterie… When properly made, its aromas are something short of unique and emotional. It comes in different agings but in order to achieve an unforgettable flavour, the one that marks the difference, it cannot be younger than 15 or 18 months. Exploraemilia selection of a Culatello producer  has been a very strict evaluation. We think of ourselves as gastronomic guides therefore it felt like our duty to do Culatello justice. On request it is possible to arrange a Vertical Tasting, a tasting that includes different agings of Culatello. Thanks to it, you  will come to understand how every single one is different one, for better or worse.

Then it’s lunch time! We are hosted in a warm and cosy winery, where we taste the real flavor of this land: every glass will tell you something about the Po and its clay soil, and the winemaker will enchant you with his personal story! Depending on the itinerary you select, we can also visit Fontanellato castle, the elegant Colorno Palace, the Verdi Theatre in Busseto (a jewel of the opera world) and a producer of Spalla Cotta of San Secondo (a famous encased cooked meat of the flatland). We will put together a varied and rewarding itinerary full of emotions… choose whatever appeals to you most!

The Parma Culatello factory, the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese producer and the winery have been personally selected by your Exploraemilia tourist guides for the human face that accompanies their excellent products.