Where to eat and drink in Parma, Italy 2016

Sweet tooth not quite satisfied I took a post-lunch stroll, going hot at Cantarelli Caffe with a cup of pure molten chocolate, and cold at Le Gelateria where mountains of creamy, sticky gelato change with the seasons. I ordered a double scoop of sweet, earthy chestnut and carried on to two of the city’s best delis - La Prosciutteria and Salumeria Grisenti – to stock up on the spoils of northern Italy: cheese, bread, vinegar (Modena is close by), dried mushrooms, and, of course, salumi – coppa, lardo, pancetta and more. Felino, the so-called ‘prince of salumi’ is made on the outskirts of the city, in a small town of the same name, and marbled like an Italian road network.

There are farmers’ markets every Wednesday morning on Piazzale Lubiana and Saturday morning on Strada Imbriani, too. Even the vending machines are impressive. One I spot, outside the gelateria is stocked with creamy milk, granular, salty wedges of parmesan, pots of delicate burrata, and sweet little biscotti by Latte di Campagna.

Down another street and I find Parma Color Viola with hundreds of edible incarnations of the 19th-century Duchess of Parma’s favourite flower. I notice something different about the butcher shops that seem to be every other building – a closer inspection reveals that many of them specialise in horsemeat. It’s considered a delicacy here and when I start chatting to one butcher they tell me to look out for horse tartare on local menus.

For a Michelin-starred dinner Parma is home to Al Tramezzo, but I was after the more rustic food the region is famous for so I headed 15km north of the city, to restaurant Al Vedel, for anolini (stuffed pasta parcels, traditionally eaten at Christmas time) in a capon broth.

Next door, at sister business Podere Cadassa, the smell of hanging hams hits you as soon as you walk into this family-run salumeria. Various parts of the pig are put to use but it’s the culatello di zibello that’s worth heading out of the city for. Pigs’ rumps, fattened in the valleys of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardia, are seasoned with Lambrusco and salt, bound into a pear shape with incredible speed by butchers Riccardo and Luciana and matured for 11-30 months (each bundle is knocked by hand to test for unusual sounds, like cheese). Creative gastronomy in action.