Day Eighteen

After a restless night in a hot hotel room, we headed out to a place that makes Parmigian-Reggiano cheese. We saw the process from start to finish, with the Dairy Master keeping a watchful eye on us, the cheese and his workers. The process is very cool and is quite sensitive as the qualities of the milk can change from day to day based on many fluctuating variables. It is neat to watch the Dairy Master inspecting the cheese at various stages because he is so in tune with how it should smell, taste, feel and look. Then we went into the warehouse where the cheese is aged....heaven. My clothes smelled like cheese for the rest of the day! There were 90 kilo wheels of cheese stacked all the way to the fifty foot high ceilings!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! Afterward we were treated to a tasting of both young and old Parmigiano-Reggiano. At the Tuscan meal we had Parmigiano-Reggiano with honey, I had never had it this way, it was so damn delicious, so I stocked up on cheese wedges to bring home and share...

After the cheese factory, we went to Bologna and were let loose in the city for about seven hours. I toured an archaeological museum filled with egyptian artifacts, a palace that was once the main building for an old university of Bologna and another palace that now houses some of the most beautiful Bolognese art. The best thing about Bologna, I got into all of these museums for FREE! How cool is that?  Oh, maybe I spoke too soon, the best thing about Bologna may be the Lasagna alla Bolognese, which the waiter absolutely insisted I must pair with a glass of local red wine.....it was phenomenal.