Wheels, legs and barrels in the heart of Italy

We did it.  We went against our grain and signed up for a group tour with Amazing Italy and the start was not ideal, further galvanizing our group touring mantra.  Our guide Max explained that we were picking up 9 people from the train station and we needed to wait on the trains, oh boy.  Well, we sure did wait, for nearly an hour, not pleasurable for Kathie and I.  While I understand the whole deal it just wasn't getting off on the proper foot.

Let's just say that is the only complaint of the day, as once we finally got rolling it met and exceeded every expectation.  Max provided historical detail as we cruised in the wifi equipped van up to our first stop, and the reason for our booking, a Parmigiano Reggiano factory.  Yes, the king of cheese.  The duke of dining.  The Italian table top item my daughter used to eat by the spoonful as a toddler in the restaurants around Vicenza back in the early 1990's.  Everybody loves cheese and our tour started here:

at the Poggioli Parmigiano Reggiano factory.  What a great experience to see the cheese making in action.  They start with these copper lined stainless steel tubs and heat 500 liters of milk until the separation occurs, with the beginning of the cheese laying in a pile at the bottom of the tub.  Two guys use wooden poles to lift and divide the cheese into two pieces and then hang the cheese to let it dry.  The remaining "milk" is used for ricotta.

     

The cheese is then moved to the shaping room, not sure that's what they call it, but here's where the mold is placed to include the all important band with outside stamping of type, maker and the DOP mark you find on the rind.  

Once in the molds the cheese is submerged in a 30% saltwater mix, the salt is from the Ravenna area, for 20 days.  Fun fact, salt is so important, and the salt near Ravenna siso good and plentiful, that the Romans built a road from Ravenna to Rome to get the salt to the capital.  Even more fun, the word salary comes from salt as in Roman times the soldiers were paid with salt, then later money to buy the salt.

Once finished with the salt bath the wheels of love, errr cheese, are moved to wait for a few years, to age and become the cheese we know and love.  Most ages 24 months, however some 36 months or longer.  I'm told the 36+ Parmigiano Reggiano is completely safe for those with milk allergies as they've all broken down in that time.  We had a nice tasting of the different ages, the 36month was much smoother and less salty in my opinion.  I bought several wedges at a nice discount; Max and the Amazing Italy tour did a fine job here!

For perspective I counted 30 rows, 20 wheels high, and 40 deep, so about 24,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano in this storage alone.

                         

After the wine and cheese we loaded up and proceeded to a small family run proscuitto factory, Nini Gianfranco where we walked the aisles of hog legs from cooler to drying. Proscuitto is made from only the two hind legs of a pig and goes great with cheese, melon, eggs, toast and life.  Melting in your mouth occurs after the legs have cooled then dried to about 50% of their original weight.  The open portion of the leg is first covered with salt then after the cooling period this particular processor brushed on sugna, which is lard and pepper (spread on toast by farmers for breakfast, ewww) after the a quick wash, hanging the prosciutto until dry and complete.  The prosciutto is tested by inserting a horse bone (the scent sticks to it best) in three different places on the leg for scent and once cleared (less than 1% fail) it is deboned and then packaged and sold.

But we weren't done, Amazing Italy was on it now.....we headed off to Boni in what was the most foreign of things for us.  Boni makes traditional balsamic vinegar.  What's so special about that?  I bet you haven't had traditional balsamic vinegar, and neither had I; let me tell you 30 year old vinegar is delicious, wonderful, and goes great on vanilla gelato!  So I learned that the vinegar is the year's harvest of grapes, no skin, juiced and cooked at a low temperature for about 10-12 hours then stored in wooden barrels for 12-100 years.  The vinegar was used as a medicine until WWII when it was recognized for it's taste as a condiment.  Originally the farmers would craft a set of 5 barrels when a child was born, making the vinegar as medicine for the child's family as a gift when they were married.  Yep, they gave their kid's vinegar as medicine when they went off on their own.  Pretty cool, and its still done at Boni today as you can see from some of the names on the barrel.  The process was that as the vinegar evaporated in the smaller barrels it was transferred down from the larger ones, constantly keeping the smaller ones full.  This process typically lasts 15-30 years with the vinegar getting sweeter the longer it is aged.  Boni was like a museum and a very small family run business, a cool experience.

Here's some that are 150 years old, passed down from his family.  Once placed in the glass bottles the aging process stops, and its just vinegar so heat and cold don't change it.  Yes, they are about $600 each.

Still more you ask?  Yes, it was Amazing Italy and what is a trip around this region of Emilia Romagna without checking out a Ferrari.  

Yes, it was time to check out one of these bad boys, and Max took us to the shop where we were given the opportunity to throw our wallets on the tabled to be emptied for the chance to drive a Ferrari 458.  Hell yea I was doing this, no regrets!

The traffic circle entering town.

Here's a couple links to the full test drive, with 360 degree camera, it was better than it looks.  That car has so much muscle and so much stopping power it was unreal.  My co-pilot said the car was about $300,000 retail but as the model was no longer made he expected the price only to climb starting next year.  He also indicated each set of brakes was $12,000, crazy right.  My test drive was likely the last time I'll ever sit in a Ferrari, but come on Power Ball!

part 1

part 2

Our last stop on this amazing day was at la Ca' Bianca, the White House, and after the treatment of the day I felt pretty damn important.  Our group all sat down for about 6 courses of wonderful food, more than we could eat, fun talk and more bottles of wine than I can recall.  I was out of the Ferrari driver's seat, no worries!!  It was a good time talking with folks from New Zealand and Australia who envied our 9 hour flight over the ocean, I'm not interested in 22 hours on a plane!  I wish we had pictures but the wine was good 😁

Thanks Max and Amazing Italy, it truly was amazing.