A Day in Modena, Italy: Food, Markets & Balsamic Vinegar!

We are taking a train to Modena this morning. We're going to spend the day up there. Modena is a town just to the north of Bologna. It'll only be about a 20 or 30 minute train ride and we're going to see what fun we can get into there. We're going out to Modena and on the way out we're taking out the trash. In true Italian fashion, the train's a little bit delayed because they're never on time. So we're just going to hang out here. Only eight minutes today. Let's hope it stays that way. We made it! On time. On time, which is really surprising. So the train was supposed to be about 12 minutes late, then it was eight minutes late, and then it was on time. That's why you never arrive too late at the train station in case they're able to catch up. We have about a 15, maybe 10-ish minute walk into the city center. This is our first time in Modena, so we'll take you with us. The Emilia-Romagna region is known for a few different things. Parmesan cheese is one of them and balsamic vinegar is one of the other major things here. Modena is known for having some of the best balsamic, so that's been part of the mission. Today is to find that. Did you want to climb it? No, but I'm not sure why. Italy has a thing with leaning towers. We got Pisa, we've got our two in Bologna. This one's leaning a little bit. It's hard to see it on the camera, but we promise it is leaning. Ooh, I can buy stuff. Lofty markets are like my favorite thing ever. This market is absolutely incredible. Everything you could have ever wanted is here. Not as many food stalls as we were hoping for. We both didn't eat breakfast, so we are a little hungry, but absolutely sensational. I can't decide what we want to get, whether we want to eat here or go out into the city and buy something else for breakfast. We are here at Bar Tiffany, which is featured on Somebody Tastes Bill, and we are here for their gnocco burrito as well as some coffee this morning. These are absolutely delicious. It's a big puffed-up bread pastry, fried concoction of just pure deliciousness, and it's light. It's just so yummy. I don't know how else to explain it. It's one of those things that we haven't really seen anywhere else. We don't really have these in Bologna, so I'm really happy we were able to try it. Mine is not as fluffy, but... It's still yummy, though. We are just outside of Osteria Francescana, which if you are a foodie and know this area, it is one of the top restaurants in the world owned by Massimo Bottura. If you see any cooking shows, any food shows, they are definitely up there as one of the best. It's a very lengthy, months-long waiting list. We don't have reservations. I'm too rich for our blood anyway. We did come out to just see and take a picture of the outside just to say that we were here. It is a world-renowned restaurant. It was featured on Somebody Feed Phil. If you guys have not seen it, look up the Venice episode on Netflix. It's awesome. We spent most of the morning strolling around this charming city, exploring squares, different markets, and seeing the largest limes on Earth until we ended up at a balsamic vinegar shop. La Consorteria 1966 is the world's first and only shop dedicated entirely to traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena DOP. Here, you can taste and compare balsamic vinegars from a variety of local producers. We tasted five vinegars and couldn't leave empty-handed, but little did we know, we weren't quite done with the tasting just yet. Bought a really nice bottle for us for home as well as just a regular everyday bottle. We're actually going to the gelateria, and they said just to get the gelato, we can come back and they will drizzle some on top for us. I don't know if I can really put into words how to describe balsamic on the gelato. So the gelato that we got is the Fiori latte, which is just a basic milk gelato, not vanilla, just like a milk cream gelato. And then we have the 25-year age on top of it, and it's like this kind of sweet but tart pairing, and it's absolutely phenomenal. If you make it up to Bologna, definitely come to Modena to get this. It is something I've never experienced, and I'm very happy we got a bottle. Something to know about that place is the classic balsamic vinegar, the cheapest bottle in there starts at 60 euros, which having just bought one, I can tell you it is worth it. However, if you don't want to commit to buying a bottle because of a lot of your price range, you can do a tasting for 15 euros per person. It is important to note that you're not tasting a lot of it. This is very powerful stuff. So you're just getting a few drops on your spoon. It was incredible, and we highly recommend you stop by if you're in the Modena area. Came back to the market when we were in here this morning. A lot of the places are closed, but this place is bumpin' out. Chris is a sucker for anything with olives in it. As you can imagine, this caught his eye. Just got some Parmigiano-Reggiano in cube form, so easy for snacking with our balsamic vinegar. 30 months aged, so super old. I'm really looking forward, probably not going to make it too far out of this place before we open this up. The salami caught Chris' eye, so he stopped to get a little salami, and now we have cheese and a balsamic. So we're gonna go get some wine, I think. For a light lunch, we went to Trattoria Il Fentino, a historic spot offering traditional Emilian foods. We both ordered the spinach ravioli in a butter sage sauce, and it was perfect. It's been an incredible day here at Modena. We're gonna head back home this afternoon, probably a siesta, and maybe we'll go out tonight. Sky's the limit. Thank you so much for watching. Stay thirsty for adventure. See you in the next video.