One day in Parma

15 June 2017

I was really looking forward to this day!! There were 2 tours booked. The first one was to see a Parmesan Cheese factory in the morning and the second was in the evening to see a Balsamic Vinegar factory and Winery.

The Parmesan tour includes a visit to see a Ham factory followed by lunch. Since I am a vegetarian, I had asked the tour operators - The Tasty Bus, if I could skip the Ham factory. The tour costs Euros 55/person. They graciously agreed to allow me to come along for Euro 30. Since this factory was away from town, they also arranged a taxi to pick me up from the factory and drop me back in town.

Address of Cheese Factory: Caseificio Basilica Nova Di Paolo Villani, Via Argini Sud, 27, 43022 Basilicanova PR, Italy.
About 13 km from town. Taxi charges 25 Euros.

The next day I had booked train tickets to go to Modena  - the land of Ferrari and other great cars. My husband informed me that the next day there was going to be a strike in Italy. I could not believe my ears! I come from the land of strikes - Kerala. Did I bring my luck along to Italy? He advised me to go to a place where there would be ample transport facilities available, like a big town. I HAD to reach Verona on 16th June; as our flight to London was from there on 17th morning.  So I decided I would go and visit Bologna again. I had to buy new train tickets.

The tasty Bus tour starts from Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi. I reached at 9.30 to see that the bus was full. Our guide was a very knowledgeable woman who explained the whole history of the cheese making, rivalry between the regions of Parma and Reggiano; the tough process of getting the cheese proven to be worthy of the GI (Geographical Index) and much more.

By the time she finished explaining, we had reached a small village where the factory was. I had expected something huge, but this was a family run business with the whole family pitching in.

We were all given cloaks and masks....

Milk from the cows fed on the grass grown in the region is only used. They are placed in these huge vats overnight.

Rennet is added to this and by the next day, the milk has curdled.

The next morning the curd is broken using this instrument.

And they are seperated from the whey thus....

 The whey is drained and fed to the pigs and thus the ham produced is said to have a special taste.

It is dunked in fresh water ....

 This is how the cheese looks at this stage.

And filled into a mould. Heavy weights to drain out the water is applied.

Look the owner's young son is helping out.

 This mould has the serial number of the factory embedded on it.

After some days, the cheese dries out and the serial number gets embedded on the cheese.

Now it is dropped into a giant vat of brine. Every few hours it has to be rotated so that the salt enters the cheese evenly.

Then it is stacked in the storage house to dry out. Now a days, machinery is used to load the top most shelves. Earlier man power would do the same. Each wheel weighs 35+ kg. Remember the cheese have to moved often from the shelves. Imagine the work load!

They also showed us how the cheese are tested by the inspectors. They create a special music by beating the cheese to see if it is hollow and use a special instrument to drill a hole inside the cheese which is retrieved for tasting.

Not all the cheeses produced get the Seal from the Cheese Consortium. Only the ones with the seal are allowed to be sold as Parmiggiano Reggiano!

See the cheese has the factory number and month/year of production.

I met a cute child who hated the smell of the storage house - Juniper from USA.

Time for tasting!

I have noted down the ages of the cheese in months on the side of each. The one on the cracker with marmalade is fresh. All tasted wonderful.

 You could buy the cheese from the factory, if you wished. That is the owner's wife behind the counter.

 I had to take a picture with Juniper..

and our guide...before I took the taxi back to town.

The ride back was beautiful and the villages we passed by were so lush with the agar agar grass which the cows eat.

After reaching the railway station, I had to stand in a long queue to get my ticket. Everyone knew about the strike the next day and many wanted to book into the Frecca trains as they never get cancelled.
Parma is a small town and English is not spoken by many. A school teacher in the queue became our impromptu translator.

From here, I went to see the Baptistery. It is very famous and was highly recommended by my husband's buyer.

But first the church - Parma Cathedral.

Look at the high ceiling....

and the ornate design..

One of the best paintings I have ever seen is here...Unfortunately, I could not take a good picture. The below picture is from the internet.

Look carefully. You can see Jesus rushing down to take his people. His mother Mary, Adam, Eve are all there in this picture called Assumption of the Virgin by Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio.

After craning my neck for too long, I went to see the Baptistery next door. You have to buy a ticket to go inside and this ticket allows you entry to the  Museum near by.

It is an octogonal (8 sided) structure. But inside there are 16 arches. Thus there are 16 alcoves, for beautiful paintings.

Look at the old door. This baptistery is the most important Medieval monument in Europe.

Does it not look similar to this?

This is a door from Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai, India.

Coming back to the Bapistery in Parma, look at how the alcoves are decorated with statues...

This is the place where Baptism is done.

 One of the ancient paintings which has been restored.

Next I went to see a subterranean museum where they have many old relics and you can even see the foundation through the glass structures.

Beautiful statues of kings, queens, angels and saints.

Panorama of the interiors.

The interiors were very cool....but outside...phew....

I went in search of the National Gallery which houses the much mentioned Teatro Farnese. It is in a huge structure and I got lost as I do not understand Italian. They were telling me to take a flight of stairs up, but I ended up walking into a group of actors rehearsing for a drama, who then guided me to the museum. 😳
The entrance fee includes entry to the theatre and museum.

And the theatre is BEAUTIFUL!! To think that it was destroyed during the second world war and then painstakingly reconstructed.

You enter the Museum through the Theatre. And when you make your way, you can see these props. But they look so eerie. Like hanging Cherubs!

 There were many many paintings, but I fell in love with her.

 Meet The Turkish Slave by Parmigianino.

Look at the size of the gallery. Huge ceiling and well placed paintings. Not too crowded. Very leisurely place to visit.

She is the person behind this museum. You can see more paintings on the net.

And yes, there was a Leonardo Da Vinci there.....But I did not take a picture. :(

Near by is a library with many ancient manuscripts.

Once I left the museum, I went to see the Mercato nearby. It had many local produce on display.

Look at the cheese displayed. This is the display while the escalator goes down.

 Lunch was salad from a nearby cafe; where the waitress spoke English and understood when I said I was a vegetarian.

It was almost time for the second tour. Tour of the Balsamico factory and a winery.
Look how beautiful the centre of the town looks. This is the meeting point for the tour.

No one else turned up for the tour. So it was just me, the guide and the huge empty bus and the driver!! A personal guided tour with transport.....WOW!

This is the Acetaia we visited. Run by the Picci family. It was in some interior village; 33 kms away from Parma in the Emilia-Romagna region.

The owner used to own a restaurant, but slowly over the course of 12 years built a acetaia and shut down his restaurant.

Meet Mr.Picci.

The first thing that hits you when you walk in is the smell. It is so beautiful.

Harvested Grapes used to be transported in this.

First the locally produced grapes are juiced. Below is some ancient instrument. The grapes are usually harvested late in the season so that they have a high amount of sugar.

And sieved.
These are the large stainless steel vats in which the Grape juices are cooked slowly. The flame is never increased as that affects the quality. They just need to reduce the juice, but not caramalize the sugar as then it will not ferment. The juices are cooked at a steady 87 degrees centigrade for 24 hours. The thickened juice is called 'must'.

The 'must' is cooled and transferred to an open barrel to ferment. Small air bubbles are seen on top to indicate fermenting.

Now begins the test of patience.
This liquid is transferred to the largest barrel.
You see that there are 5 barrels in decreasing size in a battery. Each is made of a different wood - oak, cherry, juniper, mulberry, chestnut. Each barrel imparts a certain quality to the vinegar. It seems there are seven types of approved wood; but each producer chooses 5 varieties to impart a unique flavor to his Balsamico.
The barrels are not corked. A cloth is placed over the opening and a piece of wood prevents this cloth from flying away. This gives the balsamic room to “breathe” and evaporate out of the barrel. Yes, Evaporate. That is how it becomes concentrated.
And where are these barrels placed? In the attic open to the changing season - the extremes of cold in winter and heat in summer are said to add to the complexity of the flavor.

After one year, the producer transfers the juice / vinegar to the next smaller barrel.
This is done each year till the liquid has rested in each barrel of decreasing size for 1 year.
Once this battery is done; your balsamic is not yet ready.
You have to wait another 7 years. Total 12 years to produce the Balsamico.

Look at the Picci symbol carved on the barrel.

But you are not done even after 12 years. If you want to market it as original Balsamico, then you must get your vinegar certified by the "Consortium of Balsamic Vinegar". This consortium has passed a law forbidding impersonators to label their product as Traditional Balsamic Vinegar.

There are only 100 certified Balsamic vinegar producers in the world. Each producer sends in a small portion of his wine to the consortium and 5 producers judge by blind tasting. If it passes all categories then and only then can that batch be labelled as Traditional Balsamic Vinegar.

Mr.Picci is a judge too, but he would never know if he is tasting his own produce!!

He appeared in some English magazine.

I tasted different ages of balsamico and loved the 10 year old. I am now a proud owner of a 10 year old 'Balsamico".
Look at the price of the 25 year old!! Euro 100. It is said to taste best with vanilla ice cream!

Look at how they have packed it.
Balsamic Vinegar is Black gold!!

If you need to know whether the Balsamico you bought is original, just look at the ingredients list. It must have only 1 ingredient - Grape. No Caramelised sugar or added flavors.

Time to visit the Winery. Address: via Pozzo 6-8, 43038 Sala Baganza, Province of Parma. 50 kms away from the acetaia. This place was on top of a hill and it was pretty cold.

These are Grape saplings at the entrance of the winery.

This was an automated winery, so nothing exciting. But then my guide had told me that the trip to the Acetaia would compensate for the damp squib winery.

The grape juice...

The stainless steel giant vats...

For the sake of having some wooden casks....

 The bottles are filled by this machine.

These corks are used to seal it.

And now they are ready to be transported...
Lambrusco......

Meet my cool bag, which was with me all through my Europe trip 2017. My own 'bagvathy'!🤣

The vineyards....

and me...

We got to taste some chilled Lambrusco. But I did not buy any.

My 'personal' guide.

Time to head back to town.
I asked her to suggest a good eatery and she went a step further and told me what to order.
Ravioli with Pumpkin and Ravioli with herbs.
The Pumpkin Ravilo was sweet. The other one with greens and cheese was better. Both were served with butter sauce and the chef was urging me to wipe the plate clean. He said, "butter good for skin. You glow!!"

And yes, there are flies in Italy.

See the baptistery in the distance.

Cappuccino.

The proud owner cum chef of "La Filoma" (18, Borgo, XX Marzo) who got slightly offended that I asked if it were him in the black and white pictures used for decoration. Yikes!

On my way back, I saw a painting of an Indian woman.

I had seen Sherlock Holmes pub in Bologna. In Parma, I saw this!!

The next day I was going back to Verona, after spending another day in Bologna. And  then I would get to meet my man in Verona (the town where we had parted after a wonderful time in Venice)!

The next day at Bologna (unlike the previous time in Bologna) was spent in the museum and meeting my daughter's friend who studies at the Bologna university.

From Verona, we flew to London and then to Alicante, Spain to attend a marriage in Elche. We then went to Barcelona before flying back home.