Full-Day Shore Excursion from Ravenna: Parmigiano, Balsamic, and Ferrari

Ravenna is the port. Emilia-Romagna is the region. If your ship gives you a full day, there is enough time to get into the interior and see two of the things that make this part of Italy different from anywhere else. This excursion covers a Parmigiano Reggiano aging warehouse and your choice of a second stop: a traditional balsamic acetaia or the Ferrari Museum at Maranello. Both combinations are about 90 minutes from Ravenna by car. Both fill a day properly. Neither is something you can do in a tourist shop.

This is a full-day excursion. It works if your ship arrives by 8:00 AM and departs after 6:00 PM. If your port time is shorter, see our half-day truffle hunting excursion instead.

Stop 1: The Parmigiano Reggiano Aging Warehouse

Every stop on this excursion begins here. The aging warehouse — the cantina di stagionatura — is where Parmigiano Reggiano spends the 12 to 36 months between production and sale. Thousands of wheels stacked floor to ceiling, each one turned and checked by hand at regular intervals, each one stamped with the date and caseificio that made it. The smell alone is worth the journey.

The visit is not a production tour — you are not watching cheese being made. You are seeing what happens after: the scale of the operation, the grading process, what a trained inspector listens for when he taps a wheel with a small hammer (a hollow note means a crack inside and the wheel fails), and the difference between a 12-month and a 36-month wheel in taste and texture. The tasting at the end covers at least three ages side by side, with local honey and traditional balsamic for comparison. Allow 90 minutes.

Stop 2: Choose Your Second Half

Option A: Traditional Balsamic Acetaia

Traditional balsamic vinegar — Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale — is not the product in the supermarket bottle. It is cooked grape must aged for a minimum of 12 years (and up to 25 or more) through a series of progressively smaller barrels made from different woods: oak, chestnut, cherry, mulberry. Each year, some liquid evaporates and the remainder is moved to a smaller barrel, concentrating the sugars and absorbing the character of the wood. The result is thick, complex, and produced in very small quantities on family farms called acetaie.

The visit includes a walk through the barrel loft where the batteries are stored — often in the attic of a farmhouse, where the temperature fluctuation between summer and winter is part of the aging process — an explanation of the production method, and a tasting of both the 12-year and 25-year product with a small piece of Parmigiano. The difference between the two ages is significant and the contrast with the supermarket product is even more so. Allow 60–90 minutes.

Option B: Ferrari Museum, Maranello

The Ferrari Museum at Maranello is the official Ferrari factory museum — the only place in the world where you can see the full history of the marque, the championship-winning Formula 1 cars, and the evolution of the road car from the first 125 S to the current production models, all in one building. Maranello is where Ferrari has built its cars since 1943. The factory is next door; the museum is separate and open to the public.

This option works best if your group includes people with a genuine interest in automotive history, Formula 1, or Italian industrial design — the museum rewards attention and goes deeper than the red cars and the prancing horse. Allow 90–120 minutes. The combination of Parmigiano in the morning and Ferrari in the afternoon is an unlikely but entirely logical summary of what Emilia-Romagna actually produces.

The Day in Practice

The Parmigiano warehouse and the balsamic acetaie are both in the Modena and Reggio Emilia area, roughly 90 minutes from Ravenna. The Ferrari Museum is in Maranello, 10 minutes from Modena — so both options cover similar ground and can include lunch in Modena or a village trattoria between stops.

A typical day: depart Ravenna port at 8:00 AM, arrive at the Parmigiano warehouse by 9:30, spend 90 minutes, drive to lunch (30 minutes), eat, then on to the second stop for 60–90 minutes, depart for Ravenna by 3:30 PM, back at port by 5:00–5:30 PM. This leaves a comfortable buffer before a 6:30–7:00 PM ship departure. If your departure is later, we can add time at any stop or include a walk through Modena’s historic centre.

Enquire About This Excursion

Use our contact page to get in touch. Tell us your ship’s arrival and departure times, the number of people in your group, and which second stop you prefer — balsamic or Ferrari. We confirm the itinerary and transport within 24 hours.

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For more on what to see in Ravenna during the morning before departure or the evening after return, see our Ravenna visitor’s guide. For a shorter half-day option that stays closer to port, see our truffle hunting excursion in the Romagna hills.