‘Look at the colour,” says tasting expert Carlo Veronese, sitting at a restaurant table in the village of Bosmenso. “Check how flexible it is, then give it a sniff and think about what you smell.” Only after we have given proper attention to appearance, structure and aroma do we taste the speciality before us.

We are not trying fine wines, however, but what many say is the world’s best salami: salame di Varzi, made in 15 villages around the town of the same name in south-east Lombardy. With 3,000 inhabitants and eight centuries of towers, churches, porticos and a castle, Varzi is one of the jewels of the little-visited Oltrepò Pavese. Oltre means beyond, so this is the part of Pavia province south of the Po River, climbing from the wide valley into the green Appenines.