Say Cheese with a big smile as you taste and love this amazing, freshly prepared beautiful…read moreFormaggio served with even more love and kindness in Modena. So you find yourself 253 miles north of Rome and you just enjoyed the Modena Olive oil factory tour and shopping spree. It gets better! The Ferrari Museum is the next stop but you are famished. Perfecto! I absolutely and wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic amazing, beautiful tour of this cheese factory and the store that comes with these generous samplings, ( more like a all you can eat and then some cheese fest), the wine pairings w huge pours and the very big gift bags all for just the equivalent of $69 US. The factory is immaculate, just huge and very well organized. The tour in English is about an hour long and covers the lovely 1000 plus year history, the science behind the production( as viewed through the big microscopes), the patience of the process and the magnificent end result - 150,000 eighty eight pound individually annually produced packages of the one of the most fresh and delicious cheeses .... Ever! The Parmigiano Reggiano. There are five regions that produce this; we got to enjoy 20% of that. Definitely will be back to enjoy the individual taste in each one. I just love that for all of us eggplant parm and chicken parm lovers and fans back in NY and all over the US, this is a fantastic opportunity to see, taste and experience the source and the real deal!

This is exactly what I was hoping for when I booked a cheese tour in Modena. Getting to learn the…read moreprocess and then see it happening and then being able to taste some before we left. Well worth the money. Highly recommend it.

Acataia Leonardi of Modena On our way to Tuscany we stopped…read morehere to learn and taste there amazing balsamic vinegar products. Per our wonderful tour guide the farm was founded around 1870 with has been producing 4 generations of this wonderful balsamic vinegar. The process begins and ends here at this site from growing their grapes to the consumer. The place was incredibly beautiful and immaculate and our tour guide was amazing and very informative of every step of the process of switching barrels and let us taste different 100 year old tradition( absolutely amazing). After tasting this I will no longer buy that "grocery store" version after trying this. They do sell there products on line so check them out. As our guide said if it's not from Italy it's not real. Enjoy as I had!!!

I bought some Acetaia Leonardi basalmico (balsamic vinegar) from Enoteca Ducale. I then go curious…read moreto see where Acetaia Leonardi was located so I looked up their website. I noticed that they had tours (three different types) and that they weren't far from the main part of Modena. I emailed them requesting a tour the night before I wished to visit, realizing it might have been a long shot, last minute request. I was delighted to receive an email the next day (the day I wanted the tour) from Chiara, stating that they could do a tour! I was having lunch when I received the email and replied saying I could be there around 1630. When we arrived, we were greeted by Chiara herself. Things weren't really clear about the tour yet, since the website shows they had three types of tours, I was expecting them to ask which one I wanted and to let me know a price. Nothing was said except she asked if we were ready for the tour. The first part of the tour brought us to the barrel room where they store most of the balsamico. She showed us how huge some of the barrels are and taught us about the numbers of years (more correctly, transfers) when making balsamico. She then took us upstairs to where the really good stuff was. There, was the room where the 100+ year old (transfer) balsamico was. It was a room full of black gold. She then surprised us when she offered us to taste some! She gave us each a small spoonful (think of a Baskin Robbins tasting spoon size). IT. WAS. AMAZING. She then brought us to the storefront, as I assumed the "Basic Tour" would end. That's where I was wrong! She offered us Lambrusco AND Parmigiano Reggiano to sample. The two of us were offered pretty much a whole bottle of Lambrusco and quite a bit of cheese. She gave us several different types of balsamico to try with the cheese; 5 year, 10 year, 12 year, 15 year, 20 year, and even 30 year. Aside from the different ages, some infused with juniper, cherry, or even truffle! After all was said and done, she let us wander the store on our own without any pressure to buy. To end the story on a VERY happy ending, there was no charge to the tour! The website doesn't post any fees, so I'm not sure if that's normal, but she said it was free! If you look at the three types of tours on the website, it seems like my tour was a combination of the "Typical Tour" and the "Greedy Tour" I'm glad I was able to tour the place and buy several bottles to take home and give out. I am sad, though, that once I run out, I will have to either try to make it back or purchase online somewhere!