Parmesan Cheese and Balsamic Vinegar! 5-26-15

Ciao! Today was pretty cool! We had a full morning of awesome experiences. After breakfast, we headed out for the Parmesan Cheese Factory!

Large tub of  milk!

Machine picking up cheese!

The region of Modena we are in is the only place where true Parmesan Cheese is made! Everything else is not authentic! We walk into the factory and are asked to place what appeared to be scurb type clothing! As we entered the factory, we were amazed! We watched them take giant tubs of milk and mix them a lot! As they were mixing, they were increasing the temprature! They took a cheese cloth and scooped up a large chunk of cheese! It was huge! A man came by the chunk and cut it in half. He had to be super precise to make sure each half weighed similar weights. Afterward, they tied each individual piece into its own cheese cloth.

After it is stamped and put in container! 

A machine was called to the tub and they placed the individual pices onto the machine. It picked them up and carried them around a belt into another room. In this room, the cheese was picked up by another machine and placed into a container with a weight placed on top of it. It will sit there for a day before moving on. After it sits there and drains, it is moved into another room where it sits even longer and is stamped with the companys information. It gets placed into a room that is extremely hot to continue the drying process.

The heat room!

After going through the process, they took us into the holy grail of cheese! The room we were brought to had over $50 million worth of cheese in it! It was amazing! We took a few pictures before heading out. The smell was getting to the girls! After we left the cheese factory, we got went over to the Basalmic Vinegar Museum. It was pretty cool!

Holy grail of cheese!

They started us off by showing us a video on the history of the vinegar. Then we took the tour. We saw some barrels that were hundreds of years old! They took us to their attic where the Balsamic Vinegar was being made! There were multiple different barrels being made!

Balsamic Vinegar!

They showed us the difference between 12 year old vinegar and 25 year old vinegar. There was a difference in color and texture! They allowed us to do a taste test on each but I skipped on it! I didn't like the taste of it when I had tried it the night before! We finished up and headed back to our motel. We had the rest of the day as a free day. Schuyler, Nancy, and I seriously sat in their room for five hours and stared at the walls. We wanted to rest and really didn't want to walk around the city with it raining, Eventually, the rain stopped and we headed out!

Schuyler and Nancy!

We went to a local cafe and had food and enjoyed the night! We made an Italian friend! It was so nice to be able to enjoy a good time with good friends! After the cafe closed, we headed back to our rooms for the night!