Emilia-Romagna
The region in the middle of the north, between the mountains and the sea.
This is where I'm from!
My region is named after a road! The Via Emilia was built by the Romans and runs dead straight from Piacenza to Rimini,and it goes right through my town, Modena.
Tortellini are a small folded pasta with meat in the center, and grandmothers here fold them by the hundred. Every kid has tried one raw! (But we don't recommend you do that.) At home we eat them in brodo — in hot broth. Or, if you're my nonno - with lemon and parmigiano. Which is, of course, not acceptable for anyone else!
Parmigiano Reggiano comes from the fields between Parma and Reggio. Each wheel weighs about as much as a big dog and rests for a year or more before anyone tastes it.
We call our strip of the Via Emilia the Motor Valley: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati and Pagani were all born within an hour of each other.
Verdi wrote his operas in the countryside near Parma, and Pavarotti was a Modena boy who used to teach at school before he sang for the world.
Our seaside is the Riviera Romagnola: kilometres of soft sand, striped umbrellas in tidy rows, and piadina stands the whole way along.
In my region people often say ciao, bèla! and add a friendly ehi to everything. Our dialect is soft and sing-song, and grown-ups still use it at the market.
Words from home
A sfoglina is a woman who rolls pasta by hand with a long wooden pin. In Bologna it is a real job, and a very respected one.
Take me to Italy!
Travel with Adam and Luna — we'll tell you when the next family trip opens.
