Bologna

September 6-9, 2023

WOW, WOW, WOW, what a trip to Bologna we had. This University, food town, museum, churches, shopping and much more did not dissappoint. The weather was perfect, with high 70’s to mid 80’s during the day and perfect slightly cooler in the evenings.

We arrived in Bologna after a one hour train ride from Milan, the train station was less than ten minutes to our Hotel Corona D’ Oro located in the city centre. Great location for touring the city and finding good eating establishments. Met up with Mike and Sandy Oberg who traveled from the Almifa Coast to be together for the next 6 days. Pat and Glenna jumped on the Hop on Hop off tour bus for the next hour to get a quick overview of the city and sights. Mike and Sandy took the tour earlier in the day. Met them for some adult beverages at a local deli and wine shop that was reccomended to us by some folks we met in the NY admerils club, they were from Bologna and had lots to share about thier lovely town. Thank you Rachael, Barbara and twin sisters for all your inputs. The Bottega PortaNova owned by Paolo greeted us as locals and told us the story of the family business and shared some local Bologna deli meats and cheeses and of course some good local wines. We enjoyed more wine and stories from Paolo for a couple hours then off to the hotel.

Parma Tour

We took the 7:30 AM train from Bologna to Parma and met up with our tour guide outside a smaill cafe where we had some coffee and croissants before loading the small tour bus. First stop was the Caseifico Basilicanova Parmesan Regginio cheese factory, this was a family owned cheese shop where they made 14 large wheels of cheese every day. We were able to watch the Master Cheese (Paulo) maker take the last batch of cheese out of the large copper vat as they explained the process to make these delicious wheels of cheese. We toured the plant and then tasted the various aged cheeses from a minimum of 12 months to 60 months. The process was the same but the aging made the difference between the aged cheeses. Next stop was the Conti Parma Ham Plant, this tour was good but would have been better if we could have seen the workers in action processing the hams. Tasted some great prosciutto in various stages of aging. All good and we were all amazed at the number of hams hanging in the storage area and the number of ham plants in the area. The final stop was the Balsamic Vinegar Tour at the Acetaia Picci 16th century farm. This private house was full of hundreds of casks full of aging balsamic vinegars. Mr. Picci grows his own Trebbiano di Spagna Grapes and oveesees the slow cooking and delicate stage of starting off the casks to hold the balsamic for years to come as they age up to 25 years. The tastings were incredible, we tasted the 12, 18 and 25 year balsamic and you could really taste the difference. The last one was served over some custard but very popular over ice cream and or strawberries.

Bolognaese Cooking Class: September 8, 2023

After months of email communications, we finally got to meet Rita Mattioli. Rita was born and raised in Bologna and is a teacher for a Consortium of 3 American Colleges, Rita teaches Gastronomical Culture. She met us at our hotel and procedded to walk thought out the town centre explaining the importance of the food of Bologna and how it became known as the food capitol of Italy. They have a canal system for water and many old churches, museums, shops and eateries. Stopped at a couple local markets to pick up the fresh ingredients for the cooking class and walked to her house. Pat, Glenna, Mike and Sandy spent the next 4 hours enjoying making pasta, Bolongese sauce and Tiramisu for dessert. Rita and her assistant Valerie, provided a perfect setting for this event. Prep station, kitchen and table settings were ideal. All the food we made turned out good and Rita had meats, cheeses, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, fresh Focaccia and onions to enjoy as part of our meal. Very fun way to spend the day and you can see in the pictures below. Check the box on a cooking class in Italy……

Next stop is Cinque Terre September 9-12, 2023