ENDURING LOVE

Find out more about Emilia Romagna’s gastronomic and artistic triumphs on this full-day excursion to the food valley from Parma. Gourmands will visit a caseificio and a salumificio, enjoy a tasty meal at a country restaurant and capture a glimpse of life and love in the 15th century as they wander through the beautifully frescoed halls of a castle.

Meet your private guide and driver at your accommodation and take a short ride to a dairy. Here foodies will learn all about the age-old art of cheese making and get to know the strict rules that regulate the production of Italy’s king of cheeses. Believe it or not Parmigiano Reggiano has delighted the palates of Italians for some eight hundred years. Its extraordinary fragrance, distinctive flavour and processing methods have hardly altered over the centuries thanks to the skill of local cheese artisans and their efforts to preserve regional gastronomic traditions. As you will have the chance to see and savour, only this unique territory could reward us with such a mouth-watering treat, born of an abundance of water, extensive grazing grounds and, most important of all, prime quality milk.

After the visit rejoin your driver and reach the Castle of Torrechiara, located in an enchanting setting, among the gently rolling hills of the Langhirano wine region. Built between 1448 and 1460 by Count Pier Maria Rossi, the imposing, remarkably well preserved fortress is a splendid example of Italian Renaissance castle architecture, perfectly fusing its functions as a defensive stronghold, a residential mansion and a pleasure palace. Once the stage for the love story between the count and his adored Bianca Pellegrini, Torrechiara still reverberates with symbols of passion and desire. Carved hearts, inscriptions and the 15th century symbolic representation of their ideal love by painter Benedetto Bembo still grace the walls of the most striking room of the complex, the Golden Chamber, and all live on as a tribute to Pier Maria Rossi’s eternal devotion to his mistress.

A delicious lunch featuring local specialities will then be served at a traditional Emilian restaurant.

The final stop on this excursion will bring you to the laboratory and cellar of a cured meat factory. Here you will discover what sets Prosciutto di Parma apart from other types of ham. Specially bred pigs, the uncontaminated air, the beneficial effects of time and the salty wind blowing from the Ligurian Sea, all contribute to the creation of this world-acclaimed speciality. Prosciutto di Parma is made by rubbing and massaging the hind legs of pork with a quantity of salt proportionate to the weight of the meat. After the ham has been salted, it is washed, dried and left to age in cellars for twelve months without adding nitrates. Little has changed since ancient Roman times, as attested by the earliest reference to Parma ham dating to the 2nd century BC, when Cato the Censor first mentioned the exquisite flavour and production techniques of air-cured ham in his treaty on agriculture. Taste the fruits of over two millennia of accumulated gastronomic expertise before riding in comfort back to your accommodation in Parma.