Join Signora Anna, our English-speaking guide for our Food Tour featuring Parmigiano Reggiano & Aceto Balsamico and driver for a full-day tour. Your driver will pick you up in Bologna city center and take you to the countryside and Parma for a private full-day tour to the most respected artisan cheese and balsamic producers.
Anna explains the history, and the procedure while discussion and questions are taken throughout the tour. The Parmigiano and Balsamico tour includes tastings along the way. Learn the story and see how they are produced by artisan hands. This full-day food tour includes our driver and English-speaking guide, the tours, discussions, and tastings. Also included is a full-course lunch at our favorite trattoria with wine.
DOP Parmigiano Reggiano and Aceto Balsamico, balsamic vinegar, are important local ingredients in the cuisine Emilia-Romagna. During the tour, you will learn how to make Parmigiano Reggiano, called the golden wheel of cheese; weighing in at about 85 pounds each. The process of making Parmigiano cheese follows the same method and recipe of over seven hundred years ago. The cheese is trademarked with a legal exclusive control used over its production and sale. Parmigiano Reggiano is protected by the European Union, and can only be produced in this area of Emilia Romagna. You will know an authentic wheel because it is branded with the words across its side. The cheese can only be produced in Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, and Mantova.
During the cheese tour, we visit a Master Grader at his workshop and see how this exquisite cheese is made. He leads you through the processing, first the milk is heated and then poured into molds. The cheese then sits in a brine for 25 days, and then in an aging room for 12 months. When ready, it is polished, cleaned, and turned every 7 days by the Master. After 12 months, the cheese is inspected and taste-tested by the Master Grader. Finally, the cheese is stamped with Parmigiano Reggiano on its side. Parmigiano Reggiano is precious and expensive due to its long process and the high-quality milk used in its making.
Following the tour, enjoy lunch in a traditional trattoria with local red or white wine.
Following our delicious lunch, the tour continues to an artisan balsamic maker.
We also visit an artisan balsamic maker with a tour of the studio and tastings included. You will learn about the history of balsamic vinegar, and how it’s aged – some bottles up to one hundred years old – and bottled at this noble family’s property. Learn about how aged balsamico guild continues to be one of the richest and most powerful trade guilds in central Italy. This trade also kept their secrets closely guarded as the guild passed down the technique from generation to generation. By the 1800s it had become commonplace to enrich the dowries of local noblewomen with jars and little barrels balsamico. The tour includes an English-speaking guide, tour and tastings.
The full-day Parmigiano, balsamic, and traditional lunch and wine tour is an authentic experience with our English-speaking guide and driver. The tour is 8 hours.
Program Includes
- Full-day tour through the beautiful countryside of Bologna to a prized Parmigiano Reggiano artisan cheese maker with tour and tastings with our English-speaking guide and private driver.
- Visit our artisan producer & balsamico, balsamic vinegar, including the tour, discussion, and tastings.
- A traditional full-course lunch with red or white wine is included.
- Private driver and English-speaking guide included.
- Pick up and return in Bologna city center.
Program Prices
$1,795 group price for 2 guests.
For Single Guests: If you are traveling on your own, please call us for the best group price. We are happy to welcome you into an already scheduled group.
2024 Dates: This program is available throughout the year. You can reserve your cooking program for any day of the week. Rates are subject to change based on currency exchange. Call for updated rates. Airfare not included. Group transfers for any cooking tour or tours that include transfers, are for the group and are not private. Transfers before, after or to another destination outside of your cooking tour are not included in the program price. If you would like to add on a private transfer or transfers, let us know and we will send you pricing.
