Gita a Parma — Prosciutto, Duomo e la Terra di Verdi
Parma (the city 97 km west of Bologna, 1 hour by direct train) is the food capital of Emilia-Romagna after Bologna: the home of the Prosciutto di Parma DOP (the 'Parma ham' — the most internationally famous Italian charcuterie product), the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (produced in the area around Parma as well as around Bologna and Modena), and the Ducato di Parma (the Duchy of Parma — the independent duchy whose cultural legacy includes the Parma Cathedral frescoes by Correggio and the Teatro Farnese (the first permanent theatre with a proscenium arch in the world).
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Prosciutto di Parma Factory Tour — Langhirano Valley
The Langhirano Valley's 165 prosciutto producers cure Prosciutto di Parma DOP using only Emilian pigs, sea salt, and the valley's specific airflow. Factory visits (10am, advance booking) show the 12-month curing process from salting to the inspector's horse-bone probe test.
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Parmigiano-Reggiano Dairy (Caseificio) — 4am Cheesemaking
Parmigiano-Reggiano dairies accept early-morning visitors to watch the 4am cheesemaking process — 550 liters of raw milk per 40kg wheel, curdled with whey starter, formed by hand, and branded with the DOP pin-dots before beginning 12-36 months of aging.
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Battistero di Parma — Pink Marble Gothic-Romanesque
The Parma Baptistery (1196-1307, designed by Benedetto Antelami) is the finest Italian transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture — its Veronese pink marble octagon is decorated with three sculpted portals and 16 lunettes of extraordinary quality.
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Teatro Regio Parma — The Verdi Opera House
The Teatro Regio di Parma (1829) is Italy's most demanding opera audience — Parma's 'loggionisti' (balcony critics) famously boo great singers and recall great performances; the annual Verdi Festival brings the world's finest voices here.
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Galleria Nazionale — Correggio's Camera di San Paolo
The Camera di San Paolo (1519) in the Galleria Nazionale is Correggio's revolutionary illusionistic ceiling — putti peer through pergola openings in an indoor garden painted 10 years before Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling and equally revolutionary.
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Culatello di Zibello — The Forbidden Prosciutto
Culatello di Zibello DOP, produced in the foggy Po plain between Parma and the river, is Italy's rarest cured meat — only the pear-shaped rump of the pig, cured in wine and aged 12-36 months in damp fog-filled cellars, produces this intensely flavored delicacy.