Day 1

• 11:00 am: Arrival in Borgotaro and meeting with our local expert licensed guide for a full immersion into the typical artisanal food makers of the mountain district: you will realize how those authentically genuine products are still made like once upon a time, with a completely different taste than that of the industrial versions we are now used at.
• Stop 1: Guided visit to a small family-run baker, with sample tastings directly from the oven tray.
• Stop 2: Stop at an artisanal producer of naturally preserved fruits and vegetables, from farm-to-table jams and confitures to picklings, porcini mushrooms and spreadable creams. Visit to the lab with tastings at choice.
• Stop 3: Guided visit to a niche cheese maker of the area to listen about the hard life of those small cow, sheep and goat breeders who decided to stay away from the mass productions and focus on raw milk as the base of their curdled products: the best pay-back ever!
• 02:00 pm: End of the food tour and head on to check-in at the selected country-style B&B agriturismo in the area.
• If self-drive: Free time to spend in Borgotaro, a small lively rivertown belonging to the Slow Cities network and homeland to the PGI Porcini (local variety of noble mushrooms with a Protected Geographical Indication). Walking in Borgotaro you may savour a kind of desirable tranquillity, the simple lifestyle, but also the importance of history, from its Roman origins to the so-called Resistenza in World War II. An ancient crossroads for merchants, pilgrims and travellers of the past, the town is still today one of the main stops along the Via Francigena pilgrims route.
• Dinner: Dinner (at own care&charge, ideally at the B&B according to availability).

Day 2

• 09:30 am: Meet a staff person at one of the local dairies producing PDO Parmigiano-Reggiano and enjoy your journey into the magic world of the King of all cheeses: from the curdling into the typical copper heaters to the salting and the final ageing in the so-called wheel cathedrals, you will be a privileged witness of almost all the steps of production of this out-and-out food icon. Tasting at the end.
• 11:00 am: End of all activities and head on to your next destination.
• If self-drive: Free time to explore the area on own: for example, you could reach the Centocroci mountain pass, enjoy a terrific country-style lunch there and then decide if you prefer to drive down to the charming Cinque Terre seaside or head back and stop in Varano Melegari, homeland to Parma’s Motorvalley, which is maybe less known than the Modena district but still full of surprises like the extra-ordinary Dallara cars and its 2,350-metre long racetrack used as an International Safe Driving Centre.