We are spending several days on our trip to Italy, in Emilia Romana and would like to do some food tours and cooking classes in Parma and Modena. We are also thinking about Bologna but have heard it’s just a large city.
I’m looking for recommendations for all of these but not sure how many days to stay in each place.
We will have a car and can drive to do the tours and cooking classes..
Also, please feel free to recommend restaurants and hotels too. We have heard good things about Palazzo Della Rosa Prati Hotel and their private tastings. Thank you.
Posted by
Washington DC
30405 posts
Bologna is definitely not just a big city. It has one of Europe's largest medieval districts.
I can't help with recommendations, though.
Posted by
72 posts
If you use the search feature, you’ll find a lot of information on Bologna, Parma, Modena, and even Ferrara. After much research, we have opted to stay four nights in Modena in September, as we couldn’t find accommodations that suited us in Parma, and we wanted a smaller community with good access on the train routes. We have booked a private tour with Laura as recommended by several travelers on the forum, as we won’t have a car and love a deep-dive experience with a local. https://www.foodtours.it/sample-page/ Another smaller less expensive tour you could consider is here: https://visit.acetaiagambiglianizoccoli.com/en/. The hotels also can make recommendations as to their favorite local producers and restaurants.
Since you’ll have a car, be aware of the many ZTL zones in historic towns. It can be difficult to negotiate! Good luck in your research!
Posted by
74 posts
Bologna isn't "just a large city." 🙂 Aside from being Italy's food capital, it's one of the northern region's underrated destinations.
To find answers to your many questions, I suggest doing the following:
Use the Search bar at the top of this website. In your search results, you can "Filter by Type" to narrow the list to forum results and narrow those further by timeframe.
Obtain current editions of Lonely Planet: Italy and Rough Guide: Italy. They cover Emilia-Romagna more thoroughly than RS guidebooks.
Posted by
Vignola, MO, IT
793 posts
Since you have a car Castelvetro (province of Modena) has some beautiful b&bs and you can do balsamic and parmigiano reggiano tastings - they are part of the DOP for those products as well as lambrusco. Umile Terra offers cooking classes but the b&bs also have contacts. There are some bike tours where you can travel among the modenese hills near Castelvetro to try the different products. I live nearby but arrange tours for visitors. Alyandiamo -Slow Emila Experiences is wonderful you can find her on FB and Instagram. My favorite balsamic tour was at the Vecchia Dispensa in Castelvetro which included a climb of the medieval tower and then the tasting -including 100 year old aceito. These tours are personal and you can customize them - not your typical tour.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
8639 posts
Old-town Bologna, what’s inside what used to be the town walls, is t tiny, but it’s not “just a large city.” It’s contact enough for walking, and, in fact, having a car would be a challenge, what with ZTL restrictions and parking challenges. Put first trip, we stayed in an airbnb just outside the town wall ring road, and it had parking, but we didn’t have a car at the time. We did take an outstanding food tour with Italian Days, and they did the driving.
Eating Europe now does food tours in Bologna, and while I haven’t done their Bologna tour, I found their Rome Testaccio neighborhood tour to be excellent.
I’ve stayed at least three nights each time in both Parma and Bologna, but have not yet stayed in Modena.