Well, since I lost everything I had added to my blog while on the ship, I decided to do it backwards…..meaning this is the last three days of our adventure. Once we disembarked from the ship we met Paolo, our driver, with his Mercedes van for a two plus hour trip from Venice to this area of Italy.
Our first stop was to find our about the creation of Parmesan Reggiano cheese.
Our guide explained the process to us. There are four different types of cows used in making Parmesan; this factory has Holstein cows. The label on the wheel has lots of meanings: date created, where, etc. The vats after that go two feet below the surface and are used to mix the ingredients — milk and salt. And then the cheese is placed in containers in the third picture that are containing a ring that has all the printing on it. The cheese is covered in cloth that is changed every twenty minutes as it becomes wet with the fluid. This is where the milk comes out and the cheese if formed. You can see it bulging out of the top of the circle, then it will become more dense and shrink down.
There is another process where it is submerged in vats, then it is placed in a warming room and finally stacked in a room to age. The second picture with the circular stripes shows the second best cheese and the pale one below that is the unacceptable cheese.
There was a hurricane in 2011 that took out the entire factory and their whole “cheese production.” However, they were able to sell the cheese as “Hurricane Parmesan” so recovered much of their loss.
Lastly, the tasting of the different ages of cheese: 12, 18, 24 and 60 months. All were great!
Then we were off to the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena (there is another one in Maranello). There we saw a bunch of the older Ferraris as well as one from 2022. There was lots of information and a beautiful video on the wall of the museum. Great stop!
Our next stop was in the old part of Modena, the duomo and piazza.
Our last stop of a very full day was on top of some mountains at a 300 years’ old building that had been owned by the same family for six generations. They made balsamic vinegar. I was only able to go to the bottom floor but I was able to taste all of the different types of goodness! To be designated “Traditional” the balsamic vinegar must be aged either 12 years or 25 years in multiple different types and sizes of wood casks. Without that designation it can be aged for only a short period and sells for a fraction of the cost of “Traditional.” In the
We were pretty tired now so we headed to Parma. Our hotel named The Cube was in a suburb from Parma. We ordered pizzas which we ate in our rooms and fell into our beds.
The next morning was the exciting day for the other three-but I’m getting ahead of myself and you’ll have to wait.
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