Andrea

Andrea Aiolfi
Collaborator

About Andrea

Andrea Aiolfi is the founder of Food Valley Travel & Leisure, a boutique destination management company based in Emilia Romagna. He is the local collaborator and partner behind the Let’s Eat Modena & Emilia tour, working with Yetunde to open the region’s kitchens, dairies, acetaie, and hidden corners to guests who want more than a visit.

His path into tourism was not a career pivot. It grew, as he puts it, very naturally from where he comes from. When you grow up in a place like Emilia, surrounded by extraordinary producers and deep food traditions, a certain curiosity develops. For Andrea, that curiosity became a company.

He is also, by his own admission, more likely to be found scouting a trattoria or walking through a family-run attic production than sitting at his desk. He does not consider that a distraction. He considers it research.

Local Love

The places that stay with Andrea are not the famous ones. His hidden gem is a small, family-run acetaia in the Modena countryside, where balsamic vinegar ages slowly in the attic and the pace of the visit matches the pace of the production. Time slows down there in a way that is hard to describe until you have stood in one.

His dish, without hesitation, is tortellini in brodo. Simple, deeply flavoured, and entirely Modenese in character. Tradition, patience, respect for ingredients. He says it represents the soul of the region, and he is right.

Behind the Scenes

There is no such thing as a typical day for Andrea, which is part of why the work holds. One morning might mean designing an itinerary for a group arriving from the US. The next starts at six in a Parmigiano Reggiano dairy. In between, there are new hotels to check, producers to visit, and plans to adjust.

The moments he remembers most are the ones where something shifts for a guest. Tasting aged Parmigiano directly in the dairy, standing in a balsamic attic, understanding for the first time where the flavour actually comes from. He watches that happen regularly, and it does not get old.

A group once arrived convinced they did not like Lambrusco. By the end of the visit, they had asked for extra bottles to take home. It is, he says, one of the more satisfying things about this work.

Life Beyond the Food Valley

Outside the company, Andrea travels, eats, and spends time in the Parma countryside. The curiosity that built his career does not switch off when the work does. He is drawn to food cultures beyond his own region, and to the quiet of the landscape he grew up in.

Philosophy and Aspirations

Andrea does not have a formal motto, but he works by one consistent idea: authentic experiences create lasting memories. That principle runs through every itinerary Food Valley Travel designs.

What he is most passionate about is the layer beneath the surface. Emilia Romagna is famous for its food, but it is also culture, lifestyle, and craftsmanship. His ambition is to show guests that deeper thing. Looking ahead, he is focused on creating experiences that go further, genuinely rare access, the kind of encounter that feels less like a tour and more like being let in.

Andrea and his team at Food Valley Travel are the local partners behind our Let’s Eat Modena & Emilia culinary holiday.