Culinary Travels in Italy

I enjoyed this tour in Rome http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/tours/romefoodtours/ I don't know if the Testaccio market has moved to its new location yet (the date has been changed several times), but the old market was a great place for foodies. This tour is good because you get to meet the local proprietors and taste their food. In any event, you should visit Volpetti even if you don't take the tour. I don't see the tomato specialist on the website anymore, but there was a fellow who only sold tomatoes - we tasted 6 varieties and they were all different. They all cost the same because the tomato seller wanted you to buy the right tomato for the food you were cooking and not base your choice on the price.

Eva, I read about this organization in the NY Times a number of years ago: http://www.homefood.it/en/ It is an association of home cooks who serve traditional home cooked meals in their homes. Anyway, it is something I have always wanted to do, but the timing has never managed to work out.

Below are some links that may interest you or help point you. While there are organized tours that will take you to see production of balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, proscuitto, etc. Sounds like you can probably organize yourselves and take the tours by booking directly. (I'm using public transportation so am not so fortunate!) Here are some of the links that I am checking out in anticipation of my 6 week trip to Italy. Bed & Breakfast Fagiolari is located near Panzano in Chianti, a small town perched on a hilltop halfway between Florence and Siena. Highly recommended by travel commentator Karen Brown. http://fagiolari.it/ The Il Caminetto cooking class located near Varenna; they have a b&b with great rates: www.lacanoeva.com A hill town near Rome: http://www.conviviorome.com/Convivio_Rome/Locations.html http://international.parmigiano-reggiano.it/pages/en/21672/Information.aspx\\ http://turismo.comune.parma.it/ Associazione Culturale "Manimpasta" Via San Simone, 2 40126 Bologna Phone: +39 339 8403007 / +39 339 3341026 manimpasta@hotmail.it Pasta Classes taught by Franceca Tori and Martina Macchiavelli. Modena, Acetaia di Giorgio http://www.acetaiadigiorgio.it/english.htm

The bread of Matera is famous, the town of Paestum has several buffalo mozzarella farms, some of which you can visit. In Amalfi, you can try all of the lemon-with-everthing dishes (including pasta and limoncello). Many towns make their own versions of Amaro, you can pretty much find a local one anywhere.

Emilia Romagna is sort of the breadbasket of Italy. You've got Modena which is famous for balsamico and Parma which is famous for it's cheese (Parmeggiano Reggiano) and ham (prosciutto di Parma). And then you've got Bologna which is widely considered the best food in Italy. Bologn'as nickname here is "Bologna la Grassa" - Bologna the Fat. There's a section near centro called the Quadrilatero which is a big food market section. We were able to do balsamic tastings and such. My wife also took a cooking class in Bologna and loved it.

LaVee mentioned the cooking class at Il Caminetto in Varenna (Lake Como). If you do plan to go there, the class is well worth your time. It was one of the highlights of our 3 weeks in Italy. You must book early (at least 2 months I would say) or they might be booked up when you would want to go. The location is not very convenient to town and a difficult drive, so I would stay elsewhere. They will come pick you up in Varenna and return you to town after the class. I stayed at the Orange House B&B. I believe they have a parking place you could use.

Thank you all! I've tried posting on some boards elsewhere, but didn't get any replies -- it really made my day to find some much help and insight here.

The www.homefood.it site given above doesn't seem to display your options when you choose the English language page. Switch to Italian to see what's available.

I'm guessing you're already reading and researching to learn the regional specialties of the areas you'll be visiting. Bologna is excellent for foodies. The markets are amazing, and stopping by the pasta shop will make you really wish you were staying in an apartment! I've visited a couple of cheese-makers and the like, and seeing the process just doesn't do much for me. But I've loved experiences like picking up pasta, cut just for us, from a local pasta shop in Trastevere (Rome), to take home with us. Or the local cheese shop, where a kind gentleman took his time with us, despite the line, to help us decide which cheeses and bread to get for the plane trip home. I try to locate more out-of-the-way restaurants and stores, where you'll see fewer tourists, and you may have time to ask the staff extra questions about their dishes and products. Have you spent time on the chowhound website? The Italian board usually has a ton of activity.

Have a look at Fred Plotkin's Italy For The Gourmet Traveler. You'll get several years' worth of ideas. Bologna, Modena, and Parma are all must-sees for a food tourist. In addition, the market in Padova is huge (second largest in the country after Bologna), and my friend found that the merchants there were quite happy to answer his questions (unlike Bologna's market, where they got a lot of food tourism, so he had heard they were a bit jaded).

This is where Chowhound.com is good to read. We went to Italy fully intending to partake of many of their regional foods. My wife has a stomach issue, and we just no longer eat as heavy as Italians. We had a cook in a B&B outside Rome, and he didn't really cook with that much meat. My blood sugar hasn't been as good as when I was in Italy, in spite of our eating too much lasagne.
Everything I read about the area from Bologna to Modena is that it's the best food of all.

Vannulo near Paestum makes THE best buffalo mozzarella and yogurt you will ever eat. No exageration. Antica Corte Pavalacina near Parma produces the best culatello I have ever tasted. You absolutely must get the most recent version of Fred Plotkin's book - it has a red cover and is worth every penny. Chowhound is a fantastic resource - this question gets asked repeatedly on the Italy forum there.