Let’s dive deep in Parma food culture! Parmigiano Reggiano tour, Parma ham and Traditional balsamic vinegar visit: three amazing products for an amazing Parma food tour!
The milk cooking, the curd, the cheesemaker craftsmanship, infinite shelves of slowly ageing cheese will take you by surprise. It is not a coincidence that this cheese has been named “King of Cheeses”! Beside its incredible taste and excellent nutritional properties, there is a lot of work, of sacrifice and passion, a lot of history for each and every single wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. With our Parmigiano Reggiano tour you will have the chance to see with your own eyes, the dedication infused in this King. By the end of the Parmigiano Reggiano visit, thanks to your newly acquired knowledge, you will appreciate Parmigiano Reggiano, almost like a true master cheesemaker would. The Parma food tour experience is not over until you tasted it though. On request it is possible to organise vertical tastings with different agings as well. A vertical tasting of Parmigiano Reggiano will allow you to better understand the cheese organoleptic evolution. After Parmigiano Reggiano tour, we will transfer on the hills of Parma where a gentle breeze is transforming pork meat into a first rate PDO Ham: a Parma Ham producer tour rhymes with sweetness, passion and colour! Only here, on top of Parma hills, this transformation is possible. The combination of its natural microclimate, history, knowledge and past conditions made a sweet and fruity Prosciutto possible. A Parma Ham producer visit means, when possible, to witness the making up close. The artisans trimming the meat; adding the right amount of salt, a knowledge only experience can impart; the sugnatori meticulously covering the haunches with fat or with their own bear strength, hanging each one leg on the old fashioned, yet nostalgic, scalere. Here they are going to rest and take their time, as every work of art requires. This all will happen in the context of a small family-run business. At the end of the Parma Ham tour a tasting can be arranged as well. Whether to stick to Parma Ham or to explore also some of the other products made here, it would be up to you.
A stop for lunch is a must! All the places we selected, have been chosen based on the availability of fresh and handmade pasta, first rate of cured meat and their human warmth.
Last but not least, we will move to the neighbouring Reggio Emilia or Modena. The last stop of our tour will focus on the discovery of the local black gold: Traditional Balsamic Vinegar tour. If you can picture in your head old attics filled with small barrels and invaded by the luxurious aroma of this elixir, you are not far from its reality. Forget about the more famous little brother Balsamic vinegar of Modena, we are aiming for the big thing, the older brother, the one with “traditional” adjective in its name. Do everything but do not used it on salad! The Traditional Balsamic Vinegar tour will introduce you in a world outside of time. Its producers will have to wait decades in order to achieve the organoleptic richness that characterises this product. In our society were everything needs to be fast and really available, the producer are a study in contrast. They are moved by a deep respect and admiration for this land and its tradition. This is what ti takes to make an elixir like Traditional Balsamic Vinegar PDO. We can call it a day only when your taste buds would had a chance to feast on this very treasure.
The Parma cheese factory, the Parma ham factory and the Traditional balsamic vinegar producer have been personally selected by your Exploraemilia tourist guides for the human face that accompanies their excellent products
– Parmigiano Reggiano producer
– Parma ham producer
– Lunch
– Traditional Balsamic vinegar producer
