Day 5 - Formaggio, Glorious Formaggio

Normally, I don't do mornings. The thought of leaving a nice warm bed before the sun is up has never really appealed to me, and while there are certain temptations that would successfully drag me out of bed, I never in a million years thought that cheese and balsamic vinegar would be the things to do it. :)

We were all up around 5:30am and made it down the stairs by 6:30 where Andra was serving breakfast. I immediately understood why she had cringed the night before when we told her we needed to be up so early. This was not a simple spread of juice, rolls and coffee on the counter. It was fresh, hand-made fruit/chocolate filled pastries, a variety of meats, home-made cheeses and preserves, cappucino, juices served at the table with place settings. She herself had made almost everything by hand, and it was all delicious.

The reason we were up so early was because Michelle was interested in seeing the cheese actually being made, and that happens first thing in the morning.

We hit the road in pouring rain, and did our level best to find the place (the destination on the map above was my best guess as to where we actually were). After a few wrong turns, we stopped at a gas station and found a guy to point us the right way....but it wasn't long before we were lost again. We then found a hotel, and PJ and I went in to see if someone would help us there.

Two very nice women were at the counter, and one spoke flawless English. Neither one could tell us exactly how to get there, but agreed to call the place and get the directions for us. As the one woman was speaking on the phone, the other one started pulling out several different maps and explaining exactly where we should go...in Italian...so PJ and I did our best to follow it and nod like we had a clue.

After her phone call, the English speaking woman wrote out the directions for us, and we were on our way yet again.

I must pause here and say how polite and helpful every single person we have encountered so far has been. We have not encountered a single rude person and everyone has gone out of their way to help us, even if they didn't have a clue as to what we were saying. It's never easy to go somewhere with a communication disadvantage, but so far everyone has done everything they can to make that as easy a transition as possible.

As we're leaving the hotel, we get our tour guide on the phone, and drive along with her directing us to the right place. We actually pull up into the parking lot and read the sign on the door to her, and she says, "No, that's not it, keep going another mile or so." We hang up at this point, assuming we're going to see it and her soon...but that was not the case.

We keep going, and finally have to call her back. She winds up getting in her car and coming out to find us....and then leads us back to the factory. The building had several different uses, and we had read the wrong one to her, and apparently she was not familiar with it.

For the life of me, I don't remember the woman's name, but she too was very nice and knew more about cheese than any human being probably should. She spoke reasonably good English and took us to the factory floor where the cheese process was in action.

Basically the milk comes to the factory in the evening and is poured into these 15-foot long trays where it is treated with the appropriate cultures. In the morning it is poured into kettles and cooked, and the cheese forms at the bottom of the kettles. When ready, two muscled guys pull it out of the bottom of the kettle and put it into molds where it sits floating in water and then is moved to a store-room to age.

That's the short story....the actual tour took a couple of hours. Our guide explained that everything in cheese production (as well as balsamic production...we would later learn) is controlled by a governmental consortium. Only those cheeses deemed worthy in a given year are allowed to be sold as Parmigiano-Reggiano. And to quote our tour guide, "everything else is just cheese." So this factory could make hundreds of wheels, and none of it would be allowed to be sold under their name. It could still be sold, but at a much lower price and perceived inferior quality.

The aging room was amazing. Two story high shelves with hundreds of wheels of cheese as far as you could see. The minimum aging time is one year, and the higher-end cheese is aged three years before sales. Here's what the hallway of cheese looked like:

While we were walking through this area, I noted a dusty little card with a picture of St. Franics of Assisi posted near one of the wheels of cheese. When I asked our guide about it, she explained that we would find those throughout the factory, as St. Francis is the patron saint of animals...and they want to have his blessing over the cheese. I thought I took a photo of it, but it doesn't appear to be in my camera.

At the end of the tour we were taken to the factory's cheese shop for samples. Like everything else we have tried so far, it was really good. It was a far cry from our green-can version in the states. :)

After buying cheese, we were on to our next appointment, the balsamic vinegar factory in (or near) Modena. We were able to find this place with no problem, but again, the man who owned it told us on the phone that we were at the wrong place and would drive out and lead us in.

I don't remember what his name was either, but he too was extremely welcoming. Unlike the parmesan place, which was definitely a factory-setting, the balsamic vinegar was made on a country estate in a converted barn behind an enormous house. The owner first took us on a tour of his family's home, which had been built just after the turn of the 20th century. Owned by another family up to World War II, it had been occupied by the Nazis, and then sold to this man's family in the late 1940's. It was there that they began their balsamic production.

The house itself is a work of art. Frescoes are painted all along the outside, and inside is an extensive art and antique collection. Everything looked like a museum, and it was tough to believe that anyone actually lived there.

The house was also used in the Bertolucci film, "1900" with Robert DeNiro and Gerard Depardieu. We paused on the tour to go to the TV room to watch the scenes where the interior shots were filmed.

From there it was on to the vinegar production area. Unlike the cheese factory, which was loud, and a place of constant action, the vinegar production was quiet, reserved, and with absolutely no action at all.

We were taken up to the attic where the barrels were kept. Balsamic has to be stored in attics due to some climate control issues that I missed the details on. Anyway, the mixture is poured into a large barrel, and then after time a sampling from that barrel is moved to a smaller barrel, where it sits, and then a sample is taken to an even smaller barrel, and so on and so on. The smaller barrel, the higher the concentration. It takes years to make a quality balsamic, and like the cheese consortium, the balsamic group determines whether or not the vinegar is fit to go to the marketplace. So there's a great deal of time an investment involved in a product that may or may not make it to the store shelves.

After the tour, we were taken to a tasting area out in the middle of the grape vines. It was a tented area with a long picnic table. It was really cold and windy, but there were space heaters to keep us all comfortable. I could only imagine how spectacular it must have looked in the summer.

Prior to this outing, the extent of my knowledge of balsamic was that you mixed it with oils and put it on salads. Not so. Our "tasting" was basically a meal of appetizers where balsamic was served on everything from parmesan cheese to vanilla ice cream. Now before you shudder at that last thought, let me say that the sweet balsamic that they put on it was really, really good. I will definitely have to buy some and try it when I get home.

Somewhere along the way, the owners gray tabby (creatively named "Cat") joined our tour and followed us whereever he was allowed to go. I figured that our lavishing him with attention and petting was the reason he stayed so close, but the moment he joined us at the tasting table, his motives were clear. The owner did multiple tours per day, and Cat clearly knew the routine. After the tasting we were led back to the barn to purchase the ones we wanted....leaving the cat with a lot of unsupervised left-overs. We have a photo of the cat sitting in the chair just staring lovingly at what would soon be his.

Several bottles of vinegar were purchased, we thanked the owner for the tour and headed back to La Buca about 4pm.

At some point in the day's travels, our rental car's dashboard displayed a warning light that none of us were familiar with. Given our "adventures" scraping the undercarriage on a myriad of bad roads, it could have been anything. It was in italian, and the car's manual wasn't much help. So when we arrived back at La Buca, Michelle called the rental company to see what it was, or what needed to be fixed.

Andra was there to greet us when we got back, and while Michelle dealt with Avis, Andra offered a full tour of the property. We started in what she called "mi laboratorio." It's an old barn that was converted into a kitchen laboratory for her downstairs, and her own balsamic vinegar operation upstairs. In the downstairs kitchen she makes her own wines, lemoncello, jams, jellies and canned goods from fruit grown on the property. Whatever was made here was brought over to the guest house for consumption.

From there it was up to the fields where the olive trees grew, and a white arabian stallion was stabled. Animals are everywhere, and all have free run of the place. Chickens and turkeys pass by the windows, the rooster wakes us up in the morning, and white scottish terrier named Gus never leaves Andra's side.

There are several gazebos, all with bbq's and panoramic views of the Tuscan valleys. There's also a pool (closed for the season) that has the same view.

The last stop on the tour was Andra and Mauro's private residence, which was just as nice as our house on the property. She showed us the basement where the wine and preserved meat were kept, and the wood-fired pizza oven. She told us if we didn't have any plans for the next night, she and Mauro would love to invite us over for home-made pizza for dinner. Never ones to turn down that kind of opportunity, we instantly agreed.

When we got back to the house, Michelle had resolved the car issue. Apparently that light was the indicator that the emergency break was on...and we had driven for two days with it in that condition. That certainly was not great, but it could have been far, far worse.

Since Michelle missed the tour, Andra did the same tour again for us. Then Andra excused herself and we all gathered for wine by the fire in the living room. Full from the tasting, we relaxed by the fire for the rest of the afternoon.

Travel Tip: The Italian way of living is *much* slower than anything most Americans are used to. Everything shuts down from 3-5 (and I do mean everything...businesses, restaurants, etc) so that everyone can go home and nap. Everything resumes at 5pm and goes until about 7pm. Dinner is rarely served before 8-9pm, and is always a multi-course meal that takes at least a couple of hours. You can always spot Americans in restaurants because they are looking in the windows at 6pm wondering why nothing is open. :)

When we asked for a recommendation for dinner, Andra suggested eating at the castle, which sounded really cool. She also told us that she and Mauro would be over with appetizers before dinner. (I swear if we weren't walking so much I wouldn't be able to fit in the airplane door to go home.) She is really really spoiling us. I think this place is something like 90 Euro per night, and we are being treated better than any fancy hotel.

True to her word, Andra and Mauro were back just before 7pm with a platter of appetizers that were unreal. Bruschetta, bread with home-made olive-oil, bread sticks wrapped with prosciutto. Parmesan and balsamic. Just delicious.

We enjoyed the food and wine while doing our best to communicate. Mauro explained that he was a contractor and renovated the buildings on the property himself. The villa was more than 400 years old, and they had owned it for about 25 years.

They had only been in the B&B business for about 6 months, and we were their first Americans. I think this explained a lot of why they were so warm and un-jaded. I don't think they realize how things are done at most B&B's....and how much beyond our expectations they were going.

I also think that we had an advantage in that we were the only guests. Feasibly, two other groups could have been staying in the house with us, and I think while it might have been fun, it also probably would have been a much different dynamic.

We relied heavily on our Rick Steves phrase book to make conversation, and PJ made many many points when he used the phrase that translated to, "You cook better than my own mother." Andra was completely pleased, and there was lots of hugs and thank-yous.

From the wine and appetizers it was on to dinner at the castle, which was something of a let-down. We were the only ones there, and it was a very small room inside the castle walls but nothing inside that could let you know you were anywhere special. If you didn't know what was outside, you wouldnt' have known you were in a castle or a local cafe. The food was passible, but compared to how we had been eating, merely passable was the worst we were going to see on the trip.

We didn't linger there, but came back to sit by the fire and watch TV. The only channel in English is CNN World, but the Italian channels can be hilarious if you find the right show. We stumbled onto a game show that just cracked us up. I don't know the actual name of it, but it's something like The Price is Right. From what we could figure out, a contestant guesses the prices of various items. If the contestant guesses within a specific dollar figure, the camera cuts to a stacked brunette who wiggles and dances around in a bikini to this crazy music for about a minute. (With some disturbing close-up shots)

If the contestant chooses incorrectly, the dancing girl makes a sad face and uses this machine to send a note or something to the host, saying, this sing-songy "Boop-bo." ....which is quickly becoming our favorite phrase. I will have to find it online somewhere.

Not tonight, however. Tomorrow we are spending the day in Florence and going to see Michaelangelo's David. It won't be as early a day as today was, but I think we'll need our rest beforehand. :)

Talk to you tomorrow, :)

K