Modena Culture

Traditional balsamic vinegar is the local obsession and is widely misunderstood abroad. It is made from cooked grape must, never from wine vinegar, and passes down a battery of five or more barrels of decreasing size and different woods over at least twelve years, with twenty-five for the extra-aged grade. The result is thick, sweet-sharp and expensive, and it comes in a hundred-millilitre bottle whose shape is itself protected.

This is not the same product as the inexpensive balsamic of Modena sold everywhere, which is a different, industrially-made and separately-regulated thing. Both are legitimate; only one is aged in an attic for a decade.

The car culture is equally serious and equally local. Enzo Ferrari was Modenese, the factories are in the surrounding villages, and the workforce is generational — families have built these cars for three generations.

The food is Emilian at its richest: tortellini served in capon broth rather than sauce, gnocco fritto and tigelle with cured meats, zampone and cotechino at the turn of the year, and Lambrusco, which is dry, fizzy, red and nothing like its export reputation. Luciano Pavarotti was born here in 1935, and his house outside the city is now a museum.