Today we left Monte Melino after saying arrivederci to Megan, Lino, Isabella and Ugo the dog at Villa Rosa. Miss M was sad to leave Isabella and the pool….she really enjoyed the past week.

We drove a few hours through Florence traffic to get to the first of two pit stops: Bologna. Paul and I were curious to see Bologna, a vibrant city where old mixes with new, plus the population is on the younger side due to the university. When we learned there was one of the two Nutellerias in the world in Bologna, we just knew it would be the perfect pit stop for lunch. We had read about the Nutelleria from other Nutella-obsessed travelers who blogged about how hard it was to locate but how great the experience was. Knowing it was hard to find, we specifically spent one night back in Belmont, google-mapping the location so we wouldn’t drag the rest of the group around Bologna on a wild goose chase.

We arrived in the region of Emilia-Romagna, to the City of Bologna, parked the car (Paul had researched the closest parking garage) and knew the Nutelleria would be 2 blocks away. We got there, and it was closed and replaced with a cafeteria style eatery. So disappointing! We walked to the city center to see two of their leaning towers, the large piazzas, and so many of the sidewalks are covered.

Then back in the car for 90 minutes to drive to pit stop number 2: the Ferrari Museum. The Ferrari Museum was very cool…a lot of old and new cars to look at, helmets, trophies, a video on the plant where the employees work, etc. Separate from the Museum, there are lots of places where you can pay $$$$ to drive a Ferrari…see picture of prices/rates below. We took some pictures sitting in the Ferraris and Lamborghinis before getting on the road again.

One hour later, after passing the Barilla pasta headquarters and an IKEA, we reached Parma. We have two hotels rooms that sleep three each, so we’ve split up the kids.

We walked to dinner, and then took the long route (via Zara which was having a 50% off sale) back to the hotel.

Food report:
In Bologna, we sat outside at a pizzeria for a lunch of salad with tuna and capers, margherita pizzas, a ham and cheese panini, and a tomato and mozzarella panini.

In Bologna, gelato flavors included panna cotta, amarena, menta, ciocolata, frutti di bosco. And i just had to try the amarena granites…wouldn’t order it again though.

In Parma, dinner at Orfeo which is the pizza place in town. Oh. My. Goodness. Soooo good. The crust was paper thin, but not overly crunchy or burnt. The pizza sauce was a bit sweet and there were three pages of toppings for pizza in addition to an extensive antipasti, primi and secondi menu. We started with two orders of culatello….D loved it, and I like it much more than typical prosciutto. Figures since it’s something we cannot buy in the U.S.!

The word culatello means “little backside” and refers to the fact that culatello is made from the major muscle group one finds in a prosciutto…seasoned and lightly salted, stuffed into a pig’s bladder, tied to give it a pear-like shape, and then hung 8-12 months to cure in farm buildings in the Bassa Parmense, not far from the Po River, where the mist swirls through the windows, interacts with the molds on the walls, and imparts a hauntingly elusive something that makes all other cold cuts pale by comparison.

Papa, D and Miss M all had spaghetti carbonara, Grandma had pizza with grilled eggplant, Paul had “4 formaggi speck e grana” which was pizza with tomato, mozzarella, fontina, pecorino, emmetal, speck and grana. I had “4 staggioni” which means 4 seasons: tomato, mozzarella, prosciutto, mushrooms and sausage.