You do not come here to tick off monuments: you come for the food, and the food is close at hand. The dairies open at dawn, the ham cellars are a quarter of an hour away, and in the same day you can reach Maranello or Bologna. Below are the ten destinations, with real times: these are hill roads, not motorways.
How long it really takes
Driving times from Urzano, rounded up.
Langhirano15-20 min
Torrechiara castle20-25 min
Nearest dairy25 min
Parma centre45-50 min
Maranello, Ferrari Museum1h 30
Bologna1h 50
What to see, in order of appetite
Ten destinations chosen from the ones travellers really look for, not the ones that are easy to list.
01
A Parmigiano Reggiano dairy
from 25 minutes
It is the number one experience in the area, and not just as a figure of speech: the dairies of the district receive more than one hundred and eighty thousand visitors a year, and half of the people who book come from abroad. You go in while the milk is turning to curd, walk among the wheels ageing on the shelves, and finish by tasting three different ages.
The detail that changes the day: work begins at dawn. Almost all the visits run between seven and nine in the morning, and have to be booked — you cannot just turn up. In return, you are back home for lunch.
02
The ham cellars of Langhirano
15-20 minutes
Langhirano is where Prosciutto di Parma is made, and Villa Chicca is the closest house you can rent. In the curing cellars the windows are opened and closed according to the wind: it is that air, coming down from the Apennines and passing over the hills, that makes the ham.
Open all year: there are ham cellars that open by appointment on fixed days of the week, ending with a tasting. In September there is the Festival, when almost all of them open.
03
Torrechiara castle
20-25 minutes
Three rings of walls and four towers on a hill above the valley: it is the most visited castle in the province, with almost sixty thousand people a year. Inside is the Camera d'Oro, frescoed between 1460 and 1462, which Pier Maria Rossi had painted for Bianca Pellegrini.
The hidden pun: in the frescoes Bianca is portrayed dressed as a pilgrim — a pun on her surname — as she passes one by one through the castles the Rossi family really owned.
Closed on Mondays, and on public holidays booking is compulsory even for one person. Below the castle the Sentiero d'Arte art trail sets off for Langhirano: free, always open.
04
Parma: Baptistery, Cathedral, Teatro Farnese
45-50 minutes
The octagonal Baptistery in pink Verona marble, begun in 1196 by Benedetto Antelami, who signed his own name on the lintel. In the cathedral next door, the dome of the Assumption painted by Correggio between 1526 and 1530.
The Teatro Farnese is built entirely of wood, in 1618: it was inaugurated by flooding the stalls with eight hundred cubic metres of water for a mock naval battle. Destroyed by bombs in 1944 and rebuilt exactly as it was.
Limited-traffic zone from 7.30 to 19.30. The park-and-ride at Traversetolo, on the road from Urzano, is free.
05
The Ferrari Museum, in Maranello
about 1h 30
The Formula 1 single-seaters and the grand tourers that made history, a short walk from the factory. The two Ferrari museums, at Maranello and Modena, have passed eight hundred and fifty thousand visitors in a year: it is the most international attraction in the whole of Emilia.
Honestly: an hour and a half on provincial roads along the foot of the mountains, not motorway. It is a full day, not half a day. But for anyone who loves engines it is worth every bend.
06
A balsamic vinegar loft, towards Modena
about 1h 30
Lofts full of barrels of oak, chestnut, cherry and juniper, where cooked must passes from one barrel to the next for years. The vinegar lofts around Modena receive between a hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand visitors a year, and about eight out of ten come from abroad: it is the most international attraction in the region.
Pair it with: the vinegar loft in the morning and Maranello in the afternoon lie in the same direction. One day, two worlds.
07
Bologna
about 1h 50
Forty kilometres of UNESCO-listed porticoes, the two towers, the Quadrilatero market. It is the city foreign travellers already know, and often arrive from: from here it is a day trip, leaving in the morning.
A figure that surprises: eight of the ten most booked experiences in Bologna are cooking classes and food tours. There too, you come to eat.
08
The Magnani-Rocca Foundation
about 30 minutes
They call it the Villa of Masterpieces and the name is no exaggeration: Goya, Titian, Dürer, Monet, Cézanne, de Chirico, Canova, and the most important collection of Giorgio Morandi in existence. All in a country villa, half an hour from the house.
The ticket includes the park: twelve hectares of English-style park with monumental trees and peacocks roaming free.
Watch the calendar: the villa closes for a few weeks between late June and early August, and on Mondays. Better to check before setting off.
09
The castles of the Duchy
from 30 minutes to an hour
Around thirty fortresses between Parma and Piacenza, with over six hundred thousand visitors a year. The closest: Montechiarugolo, high above the Enza torrent, and Fontanellato with the Rocca Sanvitale and the Room of Diana and Actaeon painted by Parmigianino.
The Bema fairy: at Montechiarugolo they say that every 19 May, at midnight, her ghost appears on the walls waiting for Pio Torelli, beheaded in 1612.
10
Cremona and the Violin Museum
about 1h 45
The city of Stradivari, where violin-making is UNESCO intangible heritage. In the museum you can see original instruments by Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, and on certain days you can hear them played live in the auditorium.
For music lovers is worth the trip on its own: it is one of the few things in the world you can only see here.
The view is included in the price
Sleeps up to eight on two floors, with a garden, a fireplace and a view that reaches as far as Parma. Book direct, with no commission.
Colli