Parmigiano-Reggiano & Culatello di Zibello Small Group Experience

Cheese tour was very interesting and informative and a great tasing at the end. Culatello was equally interesting, but not as detailed, light fare was very good! Could have done without being dropped off at high end shopping mall - does not go with the rest of the tour very well. Would recommend removing this from the tour.

My friend and I had a great tour of the Parma region by visiting a small diary that made Parmigiano-Reggioano cheese and learning about the entire process (my favorite part was the smell of being in the aging room with 6000+ wheels of cheese), followed by the obligatory tasting of many of their cheese products (24 and 36 month aged Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Parmigiano whipped mousse, butter, gelato, etc.) and also visiting a Culatello black pig farm and aging cellar. This was complimented with lunch of local hams, salamis and cheeses at a very nice restaurant just above the Culatello Museum (which you get access to). The tour guides were great, and really proud of their region and the contributions to the culinary world, and were full of advice and information about the requirements to call anything "Parmigiano-Reggiano" or "Culatello". The only part of the tour that was a little awkward was at the end they brought us to an outlet mall to do some shopping which didn't really fit with the theme of the tour. If it had been to a local Parma marketplace to buy cheese and ham it would have made more sense. That said it was still a very good tour and took about 6 hours, and we got taken around by a private driver in a Mercedes so what was not to enjoy?