Our tour with Mauro was one of the highlights of our three week trip in Italy. His exceptional service started long before the tour, with very responsive and helpful messaging through the Tours By Locals website. We knew we wanted to do the Parma food region tour, but we’re not able to start in Bologna. We did have a day in Milan and Mauro very graciously agreed to do the tour from there, including picking us up and dropping us off at the end of the day. He provided lots of great information as we were driving, and then the tour itself was amazing! He took us to a parmesan cheese “factory“, but not a giant one. He knew everybody there very well, and we had wonderful access to see the whole cheesemaking process, and enjoy a delicious tasting of several different ages of cheese. Then we went to the prosciutto museum and again had a fabulous tasting, including local flash fried bread, and prosciutto that was melting in my mouth. The big surprise of the day was a very small town in the hills where we had lunch. Imagine, my husband and I were the only two people there not speaking Italian, so you know the food was super authentic, and the atmosphere made for a very memorable lunch. Finally, we were taken to a lovely balsamic vinegar factory where we learned all about the history and process, and were offered tastings, including 100 year old balsamic vinegar. WOW! All along the way, Mauro provided information and fun conversation, and treated us like family. I highly recommend him as a guide for any tour, he was very flexible in optimizing things for us. We look forward to contacting him next time we are in Italy, hopefully next time for an in-depth food experience in Bologna.
