For some, the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna is a gastronomic paradise. Others call it "Italy's stomach."

For some, the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna is a gastronomic paradise. Others call it "Italy's stomach." And everyone's mouth waters at the thought of its phalanxes of plump hams, stacks of cheese, and glasses of red wine that tingles slightly on the tongue.

Welcome to the road from Bologna to Parma, replete with delicacies ranging from aromatic white truffles to Modena's elaborately produced balsamic vinegar.



Before entering Bologna, it is a good idea to take in what the town of Grizzana Morandi has to offer - and not just figuratively. Tucked away in the verdant hills south of the city, it was long home to the painter Giorgio Morandi, whose name it adopted in an act of homage - and self-promotion.

On this day in the town, Giovanni Sabetta, who is the chef in the restaurant he runs, immediately loads his visitor's plate with an introductory course in regional cuisine: The antipasto includes bacon, Parma ham, mortadella sausage, bresaola, salami and culatello.



Though this is more than enough, the visitor is also pressed to sample the polenta with porcini mushrooms at least.

Quickly picking a bouquet of slender peperoncini for his guest, already eager to travel on to Bologna, Giovanni gives a little lesson in kitchen Italian. Over there is "dragoncello" (tarragon), he says, and thyme is called "timo." As for "rosmarino," that is easy to figure out.



Then it is off to Bologna, once Europe's leading university town and boasting elegant architectural monuments, a famous fountain dedicated to Neptune, and the "due torri" - two precariously leaning medieval towers. The focus of this visit is not the city's lively historic centre, though, because Bologna is nicknamed "La Grassa" - "The Fat One" - and that means great cuisine.

The tables in the food stalls along the Via Drapperie groan under the weight of all the fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. At the very beginning of the street is a sign saying "tartufi bianchi fresci." The fabled white truffles of northern Italy's woods are selling at a cool 35 euros (51 dollars) for five grams of the underground fungus - enough to break any travel budget.



The truffles may be too expensive, but they whet the appetite. For just a few euros in the Bar Jazz, right in the heart of Bologna, you can get tortellini al ragu, better known abroad as tortellini bolognese. The Bolognese themselves do not say that, though.

Nor do they have bologna sausage or baloney. What they do have is mortadella, which is truly fit for the culinary wonderland of Emila- Romagna, where fine chocolate or a tart with woodland strawberries is served for desert in Bologna, the region's capital.

Modena lies about 40 kilometres to the northwest. It is the birthplace of star tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who died in September 2007. Here, too, the prosperity that sharply distinguishes Italy's north from its poorer south is much in evidence.

The inhabitants of Modena would naturally like to see the city's "black gold" on UNESCO's World Heritage list, along with its 12th- century cathedral, Piazza Grande and Torre Civica. It is also natural that a ristorante like Enzo, in the Via Coltellini, has specialised in dishes not simply seasoned with balsamic vinegar, but with Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale die Modena.



This delicious black liquid, which has the consistency of syrup, is aged 12 years at least. Just a few drops of it make meat sauce marvellous and can even serve as the crowning aroma and taste on vanilla ice cream.

The magic comes from must that is thickened over years, and sometimes decades. But the watchword here, as with white truffles, is: Keep an eye on your wallet. A 100-millilitre phial of this vinegar in a fine food store can easily set you back 40 euros.

The next stop, Parma, could be dubbed "The Clean One." The city has a well scrubbed look. It is a cyclist's paradise, and its spacious Piazza della Pace
provides its university students with an almost ideal campus.



Also a favourite spot of gourmands, Parma gave its name to the world-famous hams that hang in delectable rows from the ceilings of fine food stores. A very popular store is Salumeria Verdi, which lies on the street named after the composer and is crammed with prosciutto or Italian ham, of all kinds. There selection is so vast that it is hard to choose. The same goes for cheese.



Parma's Parmigiano Reggiano is Italy's premier cheese. The wheels are made with as few disfiguring cracks and voids as possible. Notably, only a fraction of the more than 3 million tons of Parmigiano Reggiano produced annually leaves the country. Italians, after all, hate to part with good food.