The 10 Best Things to do in Castelfranco Emilia, Emilia-Romagna

Reviewed By Clownfish88 - Toronto, Canada

Sophia is amazing!!!! We contacted her 6 days before visiting Modena. We had originally booked a Pagani factory tour for the morning and a Maserati factory tour for the afternoon. The Maserati factory tour was cancelled by Maserati last minute so we had time available in our plan. We reached out to Sophia and asked if she could plan out a private tour for us around our Pagani factory tour timeslot. I told her that we would like to see Balsamic Vinegar, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory, ham, Lambrusco Wine and lunch if we can fit it all in. She did her magic and contacted Pagani to pull some strings to rearranged our factory tour time to fit everything in. On the day of the private tour, Thomas, our friendly driver, welcomed us at the train station in Castelfranco. We drove to Acetaia Malagoli Daniele where we met Angelica, Sophia and Sophia's lovely parents. We learned all about balsamic vinegar and got a chance to do a tasting. It was so moving to hear about the history and see the proud that they have for their "black gold". Our next stop was a local Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory. We had a chance to walk through the factory and see each part of the process. We met the owner of the factory, Terry who was a super sweet lady. And then we try out the cheese ... it was delicious. Our 3rd stop was a private visit at the Stanguellini Museum. We had the museum to ourselves ... my husband was in heaven. The museum manager walked us through the history of the Stanguellini family, their passion for racing and cars, the development of their designs. The private collection of race cars and luxury cars was insane. Our next stop was lunch at Trattoria Bianca in Modena. Sophia picked it for us and it was fantastic. Great food, great wine, great service. After lunch, we visited Pagani for their showroom and factory tour. Amazing tour!!! Last stop was the ham museum (MuSa-Museo della salumeria) for a private guided tour and tasting. It was a small museum but very interested. Thomas drove us back to our hotel in Modena from the ham museum. All in all ... the 2 of us had an amazing day!!! Sophia and Angelica were fantastic hosts and Thomas was an awesome driver who waited for us at every stop. BRAVO to Sophia and her team!!!