The first day of anything is chaotic, especially in Italy. The first day of a fair expecting 150,000 especially so. And the logistics of herding some 5000 very international delegates to the opening ceremonies for Terra Madre were handled with something less than military precision. But like all many-peopled events in this country, you can only stand back and admire the scope of the vision and the success of its achievements. That is, after you have tended your blisters, or picked yourself off the floor where hours ago you wept with fatigue and hunger, or exhausted your repertoire of bluster at the elegant shrugs and lengthy excuses of whatever group of officials you were dealing with. The queues are almost hilarious in their orderly beginnings and their scrum-like property when the gates open.

I especially enjoyed crossing three lines of traffic to get to the bus…

But then you taste the food, and see the pride in the faces of its makers, and you are suddenly enraptured; helpless in fact. Where else in the developed world can you still find so many labels that don’t yet all say “Made in China”? Food, shoes, clothing. You sense it’s a culture, like all of them, poised at the brink even so, but for now, we embrace it with gratitude.

Terra Madre opening ceremonies were all about indigenous. Spokespeople from many endangered cultures talked about the fight to preserve their traditions and languages.

The Sami reindeer herder pointed to the difficulties of maintaining a culture when your traditional territories have been appropriated by four different countries (Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden), but invited the world to a conference on indigenous issues there next summer. Carlo Petrini was last up, of course, preaching fraternity and tolerance.

Lots of flags…

Generalised dancing and bopping about by the 161 flag-bearers at the end.

What can one say about Salone del Gusto? The world’s largest artisanal food fair is how I describe it. We attempted to have a quick look round in an hour or so, but barely managed to tour one small corner. An interesting corner though.

We started in Sardinia, where there were lots of interesting shapes and sizes of cheese:

Sicily had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of things on offer as well, including pastries and cheese.

The caciocavallo stall was nicely decorated:

They don’t hesitate to choose interesting ways to wrap their cheeses either:

The capers were incredible:

The salt was stupendous:

The plums were plump and perfect.

We passed France which had stunning cheeses of many shapes

The nougat was popular,

but the armagnac stand is going to be hard to pass by again. I feel sure my bags are going to be heavier by at least one bottle.

Flew into Bologna only yesterday, shattered after an early morning that could have passed for a late night; such are the travails of crossing London in time for a 7.10 flight from Stansted Airport. After a doze on the plane and another on the airport bus, I woke into a happy dream when we found our way to the market area.

After a good lunch at Tamburini, everything felt more than OK as we headed out of town, to start our journey west.

We arrived in Modena, which is Lambrusco country.

The meal at the Osteria Stallo del Pomodoro was affably served and began with this fetching amuse-bouche, a tart of soft goat cheese with pistachio and fried shredded beetroot. So pretty!

The antipasto misto was a marvellous misto of many interesting things. So colourful!

The Soffiato di Parmigiano-Reggiano was a cheesy mousse baked in a hollow pear and served with vino cotto. Very nice.

When in Modena… gelato with balsamico tradizionale. We behaved so nicely that the waiter gave us each a few precious drops of 25+ year old traditionale as a parting gift.

En route to Asti, we stopped for some inexplicable reason at the AutoGrill,

where the amusements are many. It is not what most countries stock their highway rest stops with…

On to Asti where the sun shone on our afternoon stroll.

A watchful dog:

Who wouldn’t want to shop at Save Money Square?

Supper at Il Convivio began with a warm and wonderful jerusalem artichoke tart, which was a sort of artichoke custard, with a sauce of local cheese and anchovies.

Then Ganascino di maiale – described as pork chicklets in the menu – braised in Barbera and beautifully seasoned; served on a polenta pancake which was a bit like a lovely dumpling.

When in Piemonte… of course it was necessary to finish with Bonet!

Tomorrow the biannual food and madness of Terra Madre/Salone del Gusto begins. Watch this space…