Bologna day trip/tour: Meat, Cheese, Balsamic, Wine?

Check out AlyAndiamo on instagram. She’s designed a custom tour for us that is a 1/2 day, but she’d offered lunch at a winery that sounded great too.

Here's a link to explore what I and many others in this forum have written about Bologna food tours.

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You’ll find my recommendation of Italian Days Bologna Food & Wine Tour #1. You're taken by minibus to factories outside Bologna and an acetaia near Modena. It's well-organized, informative, and a lot of fun. https://www.italiandays.it/

We did the Italian Days tour in 2022 while in Bologna and had a GREAT (but long) day. Do not plan on going to dinner after!

We hired a wonderful tour guide last week, Alice Misley to visit a Parmesan cheese factory, a prosciutto producer and a balsamic vinegar producer. We even enjoyed stopping and walking through 2 small villages and she made lunch reservations for us afterwards at a beautiful and delicious restaurant on a hill top that we never would have found on our own. She arranged a driver for us for the day too. Alice’s Instagram page is @alyandiamo
Email is hello@alyandiamo

I highly recommend AlyAndiamo (find her on Instagram). Alice is native to the Modena area and her tours are fabulous. Tell her what you want and she will design it for you. I've used her two different times when family comes to visit and will again in September. You won't be disappointed. Not your standard tour (i've done those in the past with my husband).

It was years ago, but we enjoyed a local guide from Tours by Locals —- he picked us up and we visited cheese, vinegar, and wine, then had lunch. Maybe more casual and cheaper than some other tours?

Last year we did this trip with Riccardo (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4275652). Highly recommended! Wasn't sure about the price at first, kept going back and forth on it — glad I just pulled the trigger. Riccardo is genuinely one of those people who makes a room better, and that energy carries the whole day. Nothing ever felt rushed or like we were being shuffled through.
We were out about 8 hours all in, got back somewhere around 4pm absolutely stuffed — serious cheese, excellent local meats, more wine than was probably sensible. Do it. Don't overthink the cost the way I did.