Our day involved visits to a "factory" where Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is made, a "processing" place where the famous (and genuine) balsamic is refined and aged, and finally on to the prosciutto "factory" where 500 new hind legs arrive every week to begin their 14 month maturation process before being distributed far and wide for consumption.
Needless to say we sampled foods along the way. For breakfast there was lots of different cheese to try, fresh strawberries, cherries, prosciutto, mortadella, salami and sweet pastries - later we were encouraged to try scoops of delicious gelato with balsamic syrup, all washed down with liberal quantities of Lambrusco wine.
Then we had lunch!
Lunch was a three-hour affair at a local agriturismo (a farmhouse where you can stay, but which also offers meals using ingredients grown right there) - they also happened to make organic wine, at the one we went to, several bottles of which were consumed before we were ultimately taken back to our accommodation in Bologna, where we could rest up before deciding that an evening meal was simply out of the question.
There were about ten of us on this little excursion, and a great time was had by all. We are enormously grateful to Alessandro for making our day one to remember forever. We highly recommend Times of Italy, if you are travelling in the Bologna region.
Parmigiano-Reggiano plant
A few of the 22,000 wheels of cheese! These are manually turned every four hours for 18 months.
Cheese-making is a full-time concern. Cheese needs to be babysat and cannot be ignored.
Balsamic, getting older.
Back legs of piggies. Pigs need to weigh 160 kilos before they are allowed to be used to make prosciutto. That's a lot of pig.
We were "forced" to eat three different pasta dishes before we were served the main course of lunch....
The pool area of the beautiful Corte d'Aibo agriturismo. Next time we should stay here for a week (or so....).
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