Goodbye Italy

We spent our last morning doing a tour of the Academie Barilla Cooking School and the Barilla pasta plant, both in Parma. First part was pretty boring, but the tour of the plant was really interesting. Well, except for the two idiot families who toured with us. Seriously people ... If you are going to reproduce, that means you also have to PARENT those children! They just let the kids run wild all over the plant. So annoying.






This is going to be our new wardrobe from now on ... Nice, huh?



So the time has come to leave this beautiful country once again. We have a VERY early flight in the morning, so we are crashing early in our plush Holiday Inn Express hotel room at the Milan airport.

It has been a great trip, except for me getting sick for a few days. But we even managed to make that fun. I am one lucky girl, being married to this wonderful guy I'm with. He has so much patience. And he can make me laugh no matter what's going on.




We had a lot of fun exploring new places and are SO glad that JT and Katherine got to join us for a portion of the trip. Sorry that the vacation has to end, but happy to be going home to see our girls ...




Hope you enjoyed following along on our journey. Ciao!

Location:Milan

Oink Oink

Wow, what a full day! We drove down to Bologna early this morning to meet up with our tour group for our Food Extravaganza ... Or as we all called it later, our Food Orgy. There were 12 of us, along with our leader, Alessandro, who was wild and crazy!

We started out at the Parmesan cheese factory. He gave a little intro everywhere that we went and he started out this one with "this is the real deal, none of that Kraft crap" quickly followed by "I hope none of you work for Kraft!" We, of course, had to confess to him that our daughter does ... And then he felt really bad. It was pretty funny. (Sorry, Beth - couldn't resist sharing that.)

Anyway, this was really an interesting tour. They still do almost everything by hand and there are only five regular workers who each have their own job to do. I cannot imagine doing this day in and day out. They start each day at 4:00 a.m. and work six days a week all year long...no vacation time. Crazy.

Here is our group getting the scoop from Alessandro ...















Going in for a salt soak ... For 18 days.


Thousands of wheels of cheese!


They have to age for at least a year before they can sell them. Each wheel weighs at least 110 pounds and they all have to be flipped over every single day.





Afterwards we tasted Grade 1 and Grade 2 chunks of cheese to compare, along with a dry Lambrusco wine. Then they served little mortadella sandwiches ... I lost count of how many Kent ate!

Then we headed to a balsamic vinegar production farm. We had done one similar to this a few years ago, so we knew most of this scoop. Again, SO time consuming for just a small amount of product. Has to age either 12 or 25 years and is labeled (and priced) accordingly. Most of these casks have been in the families for over 100 years.






We tasted a commercial brand, followed by a 12 year and a 25 year one. Then they served dishes of fresh ricotta cheese with balsamic vinegar drizzled on top and then vanilla gelato with it on top.



Then we all loaded up and headed to a "small" prosciutto ham factory. Again we were able to see each stage of the process along the way.

The fresh hams...









These guys spend all day coating the skinless portion of the ham with lard, so it stays tender while it is aging. They have to age a minimum of 14 months before they are sold.







Then we had to taste, of course. Lots of wonderful thin slices of prosciutto. Along with bread sticks and a sweet Lambrusco wine.

Now we are off to lunch, because we are all starving - not. But, my oh my, what a "lunch" it was! We had three appetizers, followed by three pastas, followed by two meat dishes, followed by dessert. AND lots of white and red wine, followed by a digestivo and grappa! The meal took 3 hours! (Hence the oink oink title of this post.) No photos of us eating, but here is the whole gang getting ready. Such a fun day!




We made our way back to our hotel and collapsed for a while. Finally around 8:00 pm we ventured out for some gelato, which was all we thought we could handle for supper. A self portrait ...




Tomorrow is a tour of the Barilla Pasta Academia and factory in Parma and then off to Milan for our last night here.

Ciao!

Location:Modena

Baby it's hot outside

We drove south yesterday to the Emilia Romagna area, where will be staying for the next few days. We are staying in the town of Reggio Emilia at the Hotel Posta, where we stayed once before many years ago. It is a great old hotel right in the center of town.




We settled in mid-day and then went for a long walk around town. We thought we were going to die though. It is SO hot here...yesterday it was around 98 and today it is 102! And no breeze whatsoever.

We saw on the news that it is nice and cool in St. Louis right now - in the 70s - and we are very jealous. We've also decided that the older we get, the more the heat bothers us. Both of us usually love hot weather, but this is pretty brutal.

We did venture out last night for a late dinner at a lovely little place that the hotel recommended. Amazing pasta.

Today we ventured out after breakfast and took a long bike ride. The town is very easy to get around in and has a lot of "no autos" areas, which is great.

Here are some shots from the last couple of days here ...

Yesterday's walk -






















Dinner last night -
















Today's bike ride -

























We are planning a low key evening because tomorrow is a full day. We are going on an all-day "Food Extravaganza" that starts at 7 a.m. in Bologna, which is 45 minutes away. It is a small group tour that visits a Parmesan cheese factory, then a balsamic vinegar production farm, then lunch and then a visit to a prosciutto production factory - all which include tastings and wine! Yum!!

Ciao!

Location:Reggio Emilia

Forced Relaxation

Because of my little bout of illness this week (see previous post) we have had a couple of really lazy/relaxing/chillin’ days … which has been VERY nice, I have to admit, sometimes we go, go, go, a little too much. This forced us to slow down.

We’ve done a whole lot of reading, napping, playing cards and games (you know, practicing for retirement). We really are nerds and love cards and games (I am the current Gin Rummy champ, but that is subject to change on a daily basis.) And we have both read a bunch of good books on this trip.

Kent has been a real trooper and has been willing to chill with me ...




He did take one for the team and went to a wine tasting with some of the other guests here on Thursday. It was actually pretty funny . . . one of the staff guys came by our apartment and knocked on the door and then whispered to Kent that they were about to do a wine tasting, if he wanted to join them. I think it was their way of saying “if you want to get away from your sick wife for a while!”

Everyone here has been great (check it out – Massimago.com) . . . coming by to check on me, bringing food and tea, talking to us non-stop in Italian like we know what they are saying, etc. Seriously though, Camilla and her whole staff have been amazing. And the scenery is not too bad either ….







This is one of the "little" breakfast trays they bring us each morning ...




Last night was our first big outing … I was feeling better, so we went ahead with our plans to go into Verona and do a bit of sightseeing and then go to the Opera at the Verona Arena (built in 30 AD ) and see Verdi’s La Traviata.

Verona is a very pretty city and we did a quick walk around to see as much as we could in a few hours. Check out some of the sites below, including Juliet’s balcony.

































The bad news is that it was unbearable hot … we had taken a change of clothes and went to the car to change (yes, in a public parking garage) and were literally peeling our casual clothes off to change into the nicer things (quite a visual, huh?). No photos of that activity.

We had already grabbed a quick supper – my first real meal in days – and my stomach wasn’t feeling the best either. BUT, we made it to the opera and it was a pretty amazing adventure. Just seeing the arena alone is enough. Unbelievable. They rent cushions to sit on, since all the seats (except the floor chairs) are just stone benches. You have to go early to get a decent seat, so we sat there for a LONG time. Did I mention the extreme heat??? Wow.












Kent is rocking the vacation beard!













I would like to say we made it through the whole thing, but we didn’t. The seating, combined with the heat, combined with the fact that there AREN’T ANY BATHROOMS IN THE ARENA was just too much. But it was definitely an experience that I wouldn’t want to have missed, so I’m glad we got there.

Today we move on to our last stop . . . Emilia Reggio, between Parma and Bologna. We’ve been to this area once before and loved it. Here’s hoping that my system has recovered enough to eat all of the amazing food that comes from that area!

Ciao!

Location:Hanging in Verona area