La Dolce Vita Wine Tours

Slow Food, Comfort Food

The Food Traditions of Piedmont and Parma

Trip Notes:

Airport

Arrival: Milan’s Malpensa or Linate. Both have convenient airport shuttle buses to Milan’s central train station, the Stazione Centrale (50 minutes from Malpensa, 30 minutes from Linate). Departure: Bologna or Milan.

Pre-tour

Plan to land in Italy a day before the tour begins; that's necessary to be at our starting point on time. Most people spend the preceding night in Milan. For hotel suggestions, email us or consult a good hotel search engine, such as TripAdvisor or Venere. We recommend staying either near the main train station, called the Stazione Centrale (more convenient for catching the train on Day 1), or in the historic center near the Duomo (more convenient for pre-tour sightseeing). From one area to the other, it's about a 45-minute walk, a few stops on the subway, or a 15-minute taxi ride.

Meeting point

Our meeting point is the train station in Tortona, a small town on the rail line from Milan to Genoa. Assuming you spend the previous night in Milan, you'll go to Milan's Stazione Centrale and take the 9 A.M. commuter train to Tortona. (We'll provide precise train details in your information packet.) It takes less than an hour, and we'll meet you at the Tortona station. Please let us know if you're coming from elsewhere or spending the previous night in Tortona. From Tortona, we shuttle to Alba (about 1 hour), where the tour gets underway.

Departure day

On our final day, we’ll shuttle you to the train station of Parma after breakfast.

Italian train schedule

Click here for an English-language version of TrenItalia. Be aware that the schedule is posted only several months in advance, so if you're looking for long-range dates, try something sooner, just to get an idea of departure frequency and trip length.

Trip extensions

Bologna, the regional capital of Emilia Romagna, is less than 1 hour by train from Parma. It’s the perfect place to end a culinary vacation, as its nickname implies: Bologna la Grassa, or “Bologna the Fat.” This historic city is the home of ragú sauce, mortadella, tortellini in broth, and of course lasagna, the ultimate comfort food. Bologna’s other nicknames suggest are equally suggestive: Bologna la Dotta, “the Learned,” in reference to the University of Bologna, the oldest university in Europe (founded 1088), which boasts such alums as Petrarch, Dante, and Copernicus. Bologna la Turrita (“City of Towers”) is appropriate for a city that still has some of its 180 medieval towers and offers a bounty of other historic sites for art and architecture buffs. Plus, there are many excellent museums of art and archaeology, and historic palaces to explore.

Travel insurance

This is recommended to protect you from needless loss caused by last-minute cancellations, lost luggage, and more. One source is Travelex Insurance: www.travelexinsurance.com, (800) 228-9792 (please use our compay code: 21-0043 LDV).

Weather

When packing, check www.weather.com. Go to "Asti, Italy" and "Parma, Italy" to get a general idea of temperatures and forecast. In late October, it’s definitely fall. Expect jacket weather, with morning mists, an equal chance of overcast or clear days, with the possibility of sporadic rain. Average daytime temperatures are 60º, and 45º at night.

Reading

Articles by La Dolce Vita Wine Tours cofounder Patricia Thomson:
"Lambrusco in a New Light"
"Pairing Film and Food in Bologna"
"Nebbiolo and the Allure of Barolo"
"Keepers of the Flame: Renato Ratti"
"A Piedmont Fable: Barbera"
"Like Honey to a Bee: Moscato d'Asti"
"Super Piedmonts"
"Off to the Races: Behind the Scenes at Alba's Donkey Palio"
"Cycling through Piedmont's Wine Country"