Day 11

Lunch at the Central Market.

Piazzale Michelangelo

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Street fair in Florence.

We arrived back in Florence this morning and visited the Central Market, Duomo, and Casa Martelli. Casa Martelli is a wonderful museum that is an example of an 18th century nobleman's home. During the late afternoon, we traveled to the Piazza Michelangelo to see the panoramic views of Florence and the Arno Valley with friends from Florence. We spent the evening with these friends sharing a meal in their home. There was a street fair on their block that evening and we enjoyed visiting local vendors and being able to experience life as a local.

Day 10

 Parmesian-Reggiano factory

Balsamic vinegar tasting at Villa San Donnino in Modena.

Barrels of Balsamic Vinegar

 Prosciutto ham factory

Our guide, Alessandro

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Neptune fountain in Bologna.

Porticos in Bologna

We started our food tours of the Bologna area with a 7:20 pickup at our hotel. Our guide, Alessandro, was very knowledgable and entertaining. He had a passion for the Italian food culture and was very informative throughout the day. Our first stop was at a Parmesian-Reggiano factory in Modena. We had a very detailed explanation and tour of the cheese making process. This cheese is government approved for quality and has to be aged 12 months. Our next visit was to a Balsamic Vinegar production. This tour gave us a better appreciation of the lengthy process in making a quality Balsamic Vinegar. This product is also government approved for quality and must be aged a minimum of 12 years. Our last tour was of a prosciutto ham factory. We saw the process from beginning to end and again this is a product under  government approval for quality. The production to all of these products is limited to this region of Italy. You can not make these products in any other place in the world. At each stop we tasted the products and then had an excellent lunch in a trattoria in the hills of Modena. Our first course consisted of sampling four different pastas, we then had a main course of rabbit and wild boar with roasted pepper, eggplant, and zucchini. Our dessert was a refreshing lemon sorbet.
After returning to Bologna, we walked through the porticos that covered the sidewalks in the historic center of town. We visited many amazing churches. Our favorite was Santa Stefano which dates back to medieval times.

Day 9

This morning we went to the Central and San Lorenzo Markets. The Central Market is a large building filled with food stalls selling meats, cheese, fruits, pasta, bakery items, and vegetables. We saw many unique items such as rabbit, tripe, pig's feet, and poultry with heads and feet.  Italians usually buy there food from individual vendors each day at local markets. The San Lorenzo is an open air market containing produce. You can find lots of bargains at this market. The afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum. This contains the world's greatest collection of Renaissance art. All the master's such as Da Vinci, Donnatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael have work displayed here. This gives you a better understanding of the history of the area and the Italian culture. That evening we traveled to Bologna. Bologna is in the Emilia-Reggiano area of Italy and is known as the country's food center. They pride themselves in having creating such food as tortellini and Bolognaise Sauce.