Parma Private Food Tour
About this activity
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Experience Highlights
Embark on a journey of flavour and tradition with a private gastronomic walking tour of Parma. For about three hours you will get to know the historic centre and taste the province's star products: Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, culatello, balsamic vinegar and Lambrusco frizzante.
The tour starts in the pedestrianised area of the centre and moves at a relaxed pace between centuries-old salumerie, family-run trattorie and Renaissance courtyards where pasta is still air-dried. As this is a private experience, the guide adapts stops and pace to your preferences and dietary restrictions.
- - Book your tour and enjoy the exclusive attention of your guide.
- - Taste five gems of the Parmesan larder with local food pairings
- - Discover historical secrets while walking less than 2 km
What’s included
- Private gastronomic guide during the whole tour
- Tasting of 5 PDO/PGI products (Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello, traditional balsamic vinegar and Lambrusco).
- Digital map with recommendations for shops and restaurants
- Transport to/from the meeting point
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Step by Step
From the elegant Piazza Garibaldi you enter narrow streets flanked by yellow arcades that smell of melted butter. After a brief introduction to the city's ducal past, your first stop is at a 19th-century salumeria: a master slicer shaves translucent slices of Prosciutto di Parma, explaining why the winds of the Apennine valley are the key to its slow curing. Right here, a sip of sparkling Lambrusco enhances the sweetness of the fat.
A few steps are all it takes to reach a cheese-shop where wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano mature for up to 36 months. The guide breaks off a piece with the typical "almadia" and reveals how the pinecones of milk, salt and time turn into crystals of crunchy tyrosine. Grains dipped in traditional balsamic vinegar demonstrate the perfect marriage of sweet and umami.
The route then meanders to Piazza Duomo, where the Romanesque cathedral provides the backdrop for a taste of freshly fried torta fritta filled with culatello. As the distant strains of a rehearsal at the Teatro Regio waft through the air, the guide recounts the historic rivalry between butchers and milkmen that gave birth to the quality Consorzi.
Following the aromas of roasted coffee, you enter an art deco patisserie for the finishing touch: gelato of creme alla Parmigiana with lemon zest from the Ligurian Riviera. Here you share tips on how to recognise an authentic Parmigiano Reggiano PDO, which wineries to visit on the hill and where to buy vacuum-packed cold cuts for the return journey.
At the end, you return to the pedestrian zone with the sensation of having travelled through centuries of culture and palate in just a few blocks, and with the name of several trattorie where you can extend your evening with a good risotto all'erbazzone.
