Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (24 page)

Both Emilia and Romagna take their names from great roads of ancient Rome. Via Emilia, constructed in 187
B.C
. by the consul Marcus Emilius Lepidus and straight as an arrow, leads from Rimini through Lombardy and Piedmont (Novara and Tortona) to Aosta and the strategic St. Bernard Pass, which in ancient times was the only opening in the chain of Alps leading to France. Via Emilia crosses Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Imola, Faenza, Forlì, and Cesena, and in nearly all these cities it constitutes the principal thoroughfare, or
decumanus
. The plan of many Emilian cities today reflects the ancient chessboard design of the Roman military encampment. It is the result of the so-called centurionization adopted in the
ars gromatica
, as surveying was called in Rome. Like the avenues and streets of New York, the streets in the cities of the Roman Empire were perpendicular and parallel to one another, and were called
cardones
(horizontal or cross streets) and
decumani
(longitudinal streets). In this way square sectors approximately 710 meters per side were formed. These were the dimensions of the plot of land that a veteran of the Roman army was usually given as retirement pay upon being discharged.

Via Emilia has not changed its name in over two thousand years, even though in official nomenclature it is now State Route 9.

Via Romea, which gave its name to Romagna, is not as rectilinear: winding
gently through the hills, it leads from Rimini to Rome. The exact translation of the term “Romea” is “road of the pilgrims.” The name “Romea” was often used generally as well, applied not only to this road, but to other routes of penitence. Via Francigena (French Road), Via dell'Ambra (Amber Road), Via dei Normanni (Norman Road), and Via Petrina (St. Peter's Road) are also referred to as “Romea” in various texts.

By Samuele Pellecchia / Prospekt

Prospekt is a Milan-based independent photo agency representing photojournalists based in Milan, Rome, Paris, London, Istanbul, Berlin, and New York. Prospekt photographers work on European and international news and features. Founded in early 2005 and directed by the photographer Samuele Pellecchia, Prospekt aims to produce surveys and reports bringing out of the value of each photographer's identity.

In the Roman era, when the tradition of pilgrimages did not yet exist, Via Romea had another name: Via Popilia, in honor of the consul Publius Popilius Lenatus, who had had it constructed in the second century
A.D
. Via Popilia acquired great importance when the emperor Honorius transferred the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Rome to Ravenna at the beginning of the fifth century.

When Rome later acquired spiritual authority in the Christian world, thereby becoming the destination of pilgrimages for all
romei
(pilgrims), the name changed to Via Romea. It went from the eastern extremity of Europe—Czestochowa, Poland—to
Italy; in Italy it broke off at Aquileia (an important stop for many pilgrimages) and took the sea route, touching land again at Ravenna; from there it moved into the interior of the territory, crossing Tolentino, Assisi, and Spoleto, and led the pilgrims to Rome's holy places.

From Aquileia some pilgrims pushed on to Padua for a lengthy stop, where there was a large, notable hospital. Here the pilgrims could catch their breath, get examined and treated, and then resume the long journey toward Rome. From Padua, the road ran through swampy areas (the marshes were drained only in the twenty-year Fascist period, the Ventennio) to the prosperous abbey of Pomposa (eleventh century), which rose on a dry islet. At this abbey, an important transit point for pilgrim routes, the Benedictine monks were intensely involved in accommodating the wayfarers. The monks offered both spiritual comfort and physical support (often at a high price) to the wealthy—the merchants and the powerful of the world—many of whom stayed at the abbey for months. The arts flourished in Pomposa, and a significant library was assembled. The abbey was one of the strongholds of the mystic Middle Ages, a cradle of liturgical chant. It was here, listening to the Hymn of Saint Giovanni in 1026, that Guido d'Arezzo invented the graphic marks to indicate musical notes that are still universally used by composers.

A region of intersecting roads, Emilia Romagna embodies the principle of relentless movement. Here it is easy to chart the mingling of ideas and images over time through architectural styles. At every kilometer, the traveler sees unfolding before him a new entry in the encyclopedia of figurative arts: the Romanesque cathedrals of Modena, the Gothic cathedral of Bologna, the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, the city of Ferrara (a Renaissance jewel), and the decadent Liberty-style buildings in seaside Rimini. In Romagna and Emilia the force of movement can be felt, the poetry of speed, the allure of open space. Every resident possesses either a motorbike or a bicycle. It was in Emilia that the engineer Lamborghini, the Maserati brothers, and the great Enzo Ferrari were able to realize their talents. Ferrari race cars are still designed, assembled, and tested in Maranello, near Modena.

Emilia Romagna presents two faces of Italy. Emilia was as rich and fertile as Romagna was poor and problematic. This dual identity developed after the dissolution of the Roman Empire and the Lombard conquest in 568. The Lombards took possession of the western half of the present-day region (Emilia), while the eastern part of the territory (Romagna) remained under the dominion of the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon enough, under Pope Adrian I, in the eighth century, with the aid of the
“recalled” army of Franks led by Charlemagne, the Papal State took the entire territory of Emilia from the Lombards, turning it into its own colony. The feudal marquises, subject to the clerics, squeezed unpaid labor and taxes out of the population until the pressure became intolerable and a period of revolts followed. Free communes governed by elected magistrates, or
podestà
, sprang up all over Emilia beginning in the tenth century. The first of these to win autonomy were Bologna, Piacenza, Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Ferrara. The communes were perennially warring with one another, and the power of the stronger families was established as the cities struggled. This is how the aristocratic families of the Farnese in Parma, the Visconti in Piacenza, and the Estes in Ferrara distinguished themselves.

On the other hand, Romagna—which came under the dominion of the Papal State later on, after being under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire and Venice—could not rebel when the time came, because its cities had not learned to defend their independence. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the weakening of Venice and the defeat of its armies in the Battle of Agnadello (1508) at the hands of the League of Cambrai, which included the armies of the pope as well, Romagna became part of the Papal State and remained so until the unification of Italy.

 

The landscape of the region is defined by the valley of the Po River and by the mountainous ridge of the Apennines. To the right and to the left of the river is the the Pianura Padana, the Po Valley, with its characteristic rows of sparse poplars and plowed fields, among which are scattered ancient square farmsteads, solid as little fortresses. Inside each square parcel is a barnyard. All around it are cultivated plots, planted with corn and succulent grasses, and meadows where cattle graze. Pigs are fed by foraging. Some are even bred to root about freely; they are so well trained that they return to their ties by themselves at night, after having accumulated some fat in the vast chestnut and oak forests on the slopes of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. Indeed, the historian Polybius wrote in 180
B.C
. that oak woods are so abundant there, the majority of Italian pigs feed on acorns that have fallen to the ground.

It is not surprising that Emilia and Romagna are home to the most famous cured pork meats of Italy—the prosciutto of Parma and
culatello
of Zibello—as well as the most renowned aged cheese on the planet: Parmigiano-Reggiano. When buying prosciutto in Emilia, you must be prepared to answer the deli clerk's questions: prosciutto from Parma or Modena? Aged a year or eighteen months? And do you want
the upper end of the prosciutto (the
fiocco
) or the
didietro
(
culatello
, or behind), which is sliced once the enormous round bone has been removed from the prosciutto?

The vast, level plots of land in Emilia and Romagna are well suited to cultivation. Along with Puglia and Campania, Emilia Romagna is the greatest producer of tomatoes, sugar beets, peas, and beans in Italy. The Po, meanwhile, is rich in prized freshwater fish. One of the local specialties is sliced freshwater fish stewed in a cast iron pot: tench, goldfish, carp, pike, and sheatfish. These dishes are served with polenta. Abundantly displayed on the hillsides are vineyards of Lambrusco grapes and large fruit tree orchards, grown with the most modern methods.

All in all, Emilia, combined with Romagna, formerly a valley of poverty, is the belly of Italy today. Emilia, it should be said, has always been synonymous with gluttonous dishes: mortadella, prosciutto, Parmesan, homemade egg pasta of all shapes. To digest all this abundance, a good vinegar is needed as dressing. And not just any vinegar, but the balsamic vinegar of Modena, the world's most noble.

The history of aromatic vinegar, an extremely important component of the Italian culinary tradition and of the Mediterranean diet, is very colorful. In the Middle Ages, vinegar was considered a medicinal substance, capable of disinfecting the organism and preventing epidemics of gastroenteritis. In the eighteenth century, balsamic vinegar became a commonly used medicine. And not just any medicine: the Modenese historian Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672–1750) considered it a powerful remedy for the plague.

It is not surprising, then, that the production of vinegars developed close to cities with great hospitals or universities. Modena is one such city, situated between the university centers of Pavia and Bologna. The balsamic vinegar of Modena is a classic, a gastronomic emblem not only of its city of origin, but of all of Italy.

Balsamic vinegar is mentioned for the first time in a text written by the Benedictine monk Donizone, who lived between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Starting in the fifteenth century, recipes for the vinegar, which is made of grape must, are found in cookbooks: it has no substitutes either at the aristocratic banquet or in the poor man's modest kitchen. We find mention of it as well in the third satire written by Ludovico Ariosto, a native of the duchy of Ferrara, in 1518. The author of
Orlando Furioso
cites vinegar in his poem not as the apotheosis of fine cuisine, but as the basis of temperance. In Ariosto's satire, the well-read protagonist yearning for freedom does not need the rich morsels that have fallen from the lord's table, such as thrush, partridge, and wild boar. He is satisfied with a turnip boiled at home and seasoned with
vinegar and
sapa
, or wine must (the
mostarda
mentioned many times in this book). This is the best of all foods: