Not just culture: the food district valley – Parma and surrounds, Emilia-Romagna.

In the Bassa Parmense, the river Po beats a rhythm of life that harks back to the past. It’s gentle flow through a land of ancient traditions, crafts and customs handed down by generations to the present day. It is here that the King of cured meats is born: Culatello, a PDO for which production is limited to the areas belonging to the eight municipalities of Zibello, Busseto, Polesine, Soragna, Roccabianca, Sissa, San Secondo and Colorno. And it is here that our group will visit the rooms on the main floor of a special castle which is also a museum, moving from the farm with its old-breed pigs and garden produce, to a tour of the cheese factory. Each route is rightfully concluded with a tasting of the company’s products.

Just a few kilometres away by coach, we find the Parmigiano Reggiano Museum, set up in the splendid 19th-century Castle erected in the shadow of the Meli-Lupi Fortress in Soragna, an area rich with castles and traces of the composer Verdi, natural oases and historical parks of rare beauty and charm, and dense, unique flavours along the “Strada del Culatello” (Culatello Road).