Culatello country: a November food festival in the Parma lowlands

Right now, in our lowlands towards the Po, a festival entirely devoted to pork is being held, “November Porc”. The towns of Sissa, Polesine, Zibello and Roccabianca host this festival, which will come to an end on 24 November. And yesterday we went for a wander around Zibello, the home of culatello. When we arrived the crowd was so huge you could barely walk, so we left and went to the Corte Pallavicina in Polesine, where there's an old Pallavicini court, fully restored by the Spigaroli family of the “Cavallino Bianco” restaurant and turned into a relais and restaurant, with the cellars used for ageing culatello. The cellar visit is guided; as soon as you go in you're wrapped in unimaginable aromas of culatello — try it to believe it. At the moment as many as 6,500 culatelli are ageing there, including those for HRH Prince Charles and Prince Albert of Monaco.