Where to Next?: Bologna / Modena, Italy

Ricardo

Overcast – not much sun at all, but still freaking hot…34 degrees, 2 drops of rain. Luckily we were inside a lot of the day, but were still outside enough that I did not escape undrenched.

When Chris suggested this food tour in the Emilia-Romagna region, a couple of days ago, I was thrilled - Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Modena balsamic vinegar, prosciutto, wine…what’s not to be thrilled about??

steaming milk

The 7AM pick up time is the one thing to not be thrilled about, but really the excitement of the day ahead almost made getting up just as the Sun was, manageable.

I’ve seen numerous times on TV the rows upon rows of wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, always thinking how cool it would be to visit…today’s the day.

Just after 7, the 6-person van drove up to our hotel. We were the second couple to be picked up. We drove about 45 minutes to the

how the wheels are stamped and IDed

small town of Modena for the highlight of the day…Parmigiano-Reggiano factory. Before we got started, we met our guide Ricardo…an extremely awesome guide…I don’t think we could have hoped for a better one – I don’t even think his awesomeness had to with the fact that he was hilarious and dropped more than one f-bomb.

can we take this much home?

Ricardo had everyone introduce themselves (16 people in total), got everyone cappuccinos or espressos and then began the tour. Apparently, Parmigiano-Reggiano is only made once per day (early in the morning) so we had to arrive early.

We saw how fresh milk was transformed each day into the delicious, salty king of cheese. The whole process was fascinating – we witnessed the cheese makers heat the milk, coagulate it, cut the curds, heat it again, scoop and form it into wheel shapes – these guys are nonchalantly dipping their hands in to very hot curds and whey I don’t remember the temperature, but it was steaming!

awaiting its post-inspection stamp

Then we moved into the salty-bath room, the forming room and then finally the room filled, wall to wall floor to ceiling with wheels of CHEESE! ‘Good things come to those who wait’ needs to be the motto at this point – no samples…yet, soon I’ll be wishing the food would just stop.

left is B-grade, slightly flawed

Back onto the van for a short ride to a family home of a Modena balsamic vinegar producer. We are schooled on the intricacies of the making, aging and tasting of this dark product. The barrels of vinegar are kept right along side where the family lives – in another room, but in the same building. Apparently, when a baby is born to a family in Modena they start a vinegar for the year that baby was born – aging it and tending to it for decades. This vinegar will last for decades and possibly until after the adult dies.

salty-bath

One very interesting thing was that the barrels the balsamic is aged in basically get eaten from the inside out by the vinegar…they don’t decant into another barrel, but build another barrel around the old one.

Not only did we learn about and sample Modena balsamic vinegar, we had a ‘breakfast of the champions’. This breakfast included a 12-month and 36-month Parmigiano-Reggiano, mortadella (still not loving it) salame (only 1, 2 would be salami – Italian lesson), bread, balsamic and Lambrusco (regional sparkling red wine). All the while Ricardo is telling us how to taste, history and basically all kinds of info with his hilarious twist.

big ball, was just milk an hour ago

At this point it is only 10:30, but we are drinking plenty of wine…then there was the Caffè corretto (espresso with grappa) – good grief! The dessert for the breakfast was ricotta cheese from the parmesan cheese factory topped with balsamic – wow! At the end, of course, we were able to buy some cheese or balsamic…we did both - we decided against the 100 year old, 550€ bottle and just went with the

My stomach wasn’t at all empty and my head was a tad foggy, but off we were to lunch at an agritourism vineyard. I’m pretty sure I’ve NEVER eaten so much in my entire life! There were 3 types of pasta each served in succession, then chicken Cacciatori, veal scaloppini, a few leaves of lettuce, and meatballs!

Ricardo chunking more

After the pasta, the dishes were served together. Let’s not forget dessert (even though I’m certain my stomach wanted to) of a type of custard, then Caffè corretto (again) and a cherry liquor! All of course accompanied by WINE! OMG…so much food and so much wine! I was smart enough to mostly stop drinking. This meal was really something else! Oh, yeah…I forgot about the bread – there was bread!

The last stop was a prosciutto factory. This again was in a small building that looked like a person’s house from the outside. It was more of a factory than the balsamic place was, but the absolute opposite of flashy, or commercial. Here we didn’t see as much of the process as we did at the cheese factory…no pig slaughtering for us thankfully. We did however, see just about as many prosciuttos as we did wheels of cheese.

balsamic 'battery'

Every where we looked, in every room we entered, in every fridge we stepped into…row upon row of legs of prosciutto! As expected, we ended with a tasting washed down with more wine. This prosciutto was awesome…tasted like prosciutto I’ve previously tasted, but the texture was better…kind of melt in the mouth rather than stringy. After hugs and kisses all around with Ricardo, we were finally back on the road to Bologna.

correcting the coffee - good grief!

I really shouldn’t say ‘finally’ because it was an absolutely bellissimo day – but oh the belly…so full!

Once back at the hotel…we couldn’t really move and took it easy for the rest of the night – no need for dinner…Chris did obviously hit the next door piggly-wiggly for a couple of beers…no need to start the regime just yet! We spent the rest of the night between the glorious balcony of our room and inside our room. The balcony is huge and it’s wonderful to be outside, but every so often the mugginess becomes a bit overwhelming that we have to retreat to the climate-controlled refuge of our room.

more to drink??

Oh, and by the way…it seems that I neglected to mention that my parents headed back to Calgary once the cruise was over – I hope they are luxuriating in the coolness of a Calgary summer.

prosciutto everywhere

Chris and I will join them back in Calgary tomorrow and can kiss this heat and humidity good bye! Vacation is ALWAYS fantastic, but seriously…the heat…the humidity!