What a day! Let us say it again unless you missed it: what a day! But first, just a note that we had a jazz concert literally outside our windows last night as the Jewish Museum had a function. We just opened the windows and tuned in. Very cool.

Back to Wednesday. On the advice of our good friend Trip Adviser we had committed to a food tour of the region out to Modena with a group called Italian Days Food Experience. Let's be clear- this is NOT to be missed, and while the region, the food, the factories and the organisation were great, the real star was Alessandro Martini, our guide. But we are getting ahead of ourselves ....

The day began with what in Sydney would have been a sleep in at 5.45am, but in Bologna was both unusual for us, and downright uncivilised by local standards. At an hour when Bar Sport in Leichhardt has sold its 40th caffe, most of Bologna's cafés are still chiuso!

We were picked up at the foot of the two towers by our driver Marco. His English and my Italian were on a par, so he was happy to speak Italian- good practice. We then picked up 4 Americans and headed for the first stop - a cooperative cheese factory in Modena where we first met Alessandro, owner and creator of the Food and Wine Tour company. What a character- a kind of cross between Roberto Benigni ( for his manner and comic sense) and Luca Zingarelli (He looked like Inspector Montalbano). He greeted both mini buses, handed out paper coats and in we went to see the wonder of making Parmigiano Reggiano. If you want the technical details look it up. Suffice it to say that is highly artisanal, it is 365 days a year, and the real money is in the ricotta, which is a by product! The Grade 1 cheese matures at least 2 years, the grade 2 - which is perfectly good but with minor imperfections for only one year. The DOP process which was so critical to each of the foods we saw today ensures the strictest of controls on region, inputs, processes and produce.

The visit was followed by a breakfast of cheese samples, mortadella focaccia , pizza, and of course dry Lambrusco - typical of the region- and pastries! The day was off to a flying start.

Next stop the Villa San Donnino - an acetaio where balsamic is made. This makes the two years for cheese seem like an instant. A DOP balsamico must age at least 12 years before it can be accredited. Unlike what passes for balsamic vinegar, it has only one ingredient- boiled grape must- which is allowed to mature over the years in a series of open wooden barrels called a batteria. As it slowly evaporates in the summers in the attic it is moved into ever smaller barrels, which are in turn topped up from the preceding barrel as evaporation occurs each year. Again, worth a read elsewhere. There is again almost no money in the DOP production by the time conditions have been met, inspections organised, bottling in the specially shaped bottles managed etc. This place has a range of non DOP products which can be sold in volume to make it worth while. Many families set up batterie for their children and hand them on through generations. Alessandro has done just this for his two kids, and keeps them at the Villa where we were. We tasted non DOP balsamic vinegar ( what we buy in supermarkets at home ), some non DOP balsamico, and two kinds of DOP - 12 year and 25 year aged. The differences were marked. We also had the most magnificent ricotta ( 50 minutes old) with balsamic jelly. Oh - and ice cream with balsamic of course. We succumbed and spent 75 Euro on 100 ml of the 25 year old - which costs from 180 to 400 dollars in Australia! We may not be passing this on to the children!

Next stop was a prosciutto processing plant, but Prosciutto di Modena, not Parma. The rules are the same to get DOP Modena as Parma. The inspectors are the same. The ageing is 2 months less. According to Alessandro when you ask what the difference is the locals will say the air, but given that these days the curing is done indoors he isn't too convinced. A 12 month process of salting, washing and drying leads to DOP if it meets the standard.

A small snack of grissini, as much prosciutto as you could swallow and some sweet Lambrusco - well, it had been a while since our last alcohol- and we were on our way to lunch!

We drove into the hills back in the province of Bologna - in Monteveglio- La Trattoria San Antonio. The publicity material for the trip mentioned a "LIGHT" lunch (complete with quotation marks and capitals) and advised us to wear spandex. We thought the latter was because of walking, but it was another lunch joke. Even now, nearly 8 hours later we still haven't touched another piece of food.We lost track of the courses and the individual dishes, which covered the regional range. And Alessandro was the perfect Italian host- how could you say no to just one more mouthful ,one more piece, one more slice? This is a list of some of the things we can remember. Wines: pignerolo del Emilia, local Cabernet Sauvignon; then giardineira, salami, guanciale, local cream cheese, prosciutto, a cooked pork cold meat; tortellini alla panna, gramigna con salsiccie, tagliatelle a ragu di pancetta; crescentine (also known as gnocchi fritti), a local flatbread called tigella on which one spreads a pesto di lardo (pork in lard), stuffed zucchini and peas with more pork (now we know what happens to the rest of the pigs who sacrifice their hind legs to prosciutto!). Just when it was beginning to look safe there came sour cherry jam and Nutella, sorbetto- fabulous- coffee, limoncello and liquerizia. As you can imagine the lunch was anything but light, it went for some time and spandex was looking like a good idea by the time it got to 3.30!

We rolled home, rested, and in no need of food went for an evening walk, finishing with a free concert in the Piazza Maggiore from a Turkish jazz ensemble joined by a Cuban singer and an American saxophonist called Ernie Watts - a dual Grammy Award winner- and we could see why. Another evening ending with jazz. And that's all folks!