My Defining Decade: "You cannot say no to wine and food"

Today, we were in Modena! We started our itinerary at the BioHombre Cheese Farm. They are famous for making Parmagiano-Reggiano and have perfected the craft for generations. The farm makes about fifteen 100kg wheels of cheese each day, which turns out to be about 4,000 per year. They place the newly curdled cheese in a circular mold to push the excess water out before putting it in a salt water brine solution. Then they age the cheese for at least 12 months, and then longer for a more flavorful cheese. They've found most people enjoy 12-36 month aged Parmagiano-Reggiano. We got to sample the 24-month aged cheese, and it was really good! It tasted like Parmesan but was fairly mild. You could really taste the "freshness" (It was two years old but it didn't have preservatives so what do you call that?). Then on the same tour, we got to see the farm owners' Masarati car collection! I want to say he had about 30 cars and 30 motorcycles/bikes/mopeds! I mean we just walked around millions and millions of dollars worth of cars. I'm thinking about moving here and starting my own cheese farm...the dreams continue.
Our next stop was a balsamic vinegar farm(?)...It was basically a family run business that had been making balsamic vinegar for over 150 years! And forget everything you've every known about balsamic vinegar. We've been lied to over in the US and Modena knows the secret. Apparently the only ingredient in true balsamic vinegar is grape must or acidified grape must (the two are interchangeable). Check your bottle at home! It most likely has wine vinegar, grape juice, thickening agents, and colorings. We got to try the real stuff and it was so interesting! It did have a little acidic flavor to it but it was much more complex. Each one is aged for at least ten years, and then an additional amount to produce different flavors. One batch has been aging for the ten years plus 150 years! Our tour guide explained that you make balsamic vinegar to work for the next generation, not your own. How differently I tend to think...We got to try several different ages, a standard 5 year, 16 year in cherry barrels, 16 year in juniper, and the 100 year. The standard 5 year is good for daily use on veggies, salad, meats, etc. The cherry aged is good on ice cream and cheesecake! (And yes it actually would be good on those. Real balsamic vinegar blew my mind.) The juniper has a sharpness to it perfect for meats, and the 100 year doesn't go with anything. A spoonful is a pleasure. We also got a complimentary lunch afterwards with different foods to try with balsamic vinegar including sliced meats, salad, pizza, cheese, and bread. As our tour guide said "One rule in Italy: You cannot say no to wine and food!" She just gets me. I ended up buying a 16 year cherry vinegar and 10 year for daily use. I guess I'm ruined for American balsamic vinegar now, because there's no way I could go back now. Well I could, but I just don't really want to! The real stuff is just too good! My wallet may tell me otherwise though. To be continued.
Our final stop of the tour day was the Ferrari museum. I will admit I'm not really into cars so I don't know much about the amazing engineering feats that Ferrari was able to accomplish with their engines and why it hadn't been done before. I can say that the cars were SO COOL! I wanted to just hop in one and drive away. Some of them could go up to 300mph! So while I don't know exactly how the engines work, I can say that something is special about them. My favorite room in the museum was the race display room. At least a hundred trophies lined the walls and each racing model was displayed in a circle around the room. They even had championship music playing in the background to give you the full effect of a win in a legendary Ferrari. It was awesome.
After heading back to the hotel, we went out again for dinner. It's not that Modena is small (although it definitely is compared to Rome), but it's much different than Rome. We could walk down the block and pass four restaurants, and here we have to search a bit more. Also, the people here know much less English, which should not be expected of them, but definitely makes our lives a little more confusing. Our first stop was a little restaurant that seemed cute enough. Our group of 12 sat down outside and when the waitress came over, she realized how little Italian we spoke, even combined. She was also not a fan of our putting tables together so we got the stink eye. Then she told us that they only had about one of each entree left (and there were six...). We weren't up for rationing our food so some of us left to go find another restaurant (we again go the stink eye. I'm kind of getting used to it now, since it seems to be the most common look I get here!). If we could speak Italian, we would've explained that we wanted more food and so were going to just go somewhere else but since we didn't, we probably seemed rude for just getting up and walking out. Oh well, the price you pay to eat sometimes. We ended up finding the cutest little restaurant with fun colored glasses and a more modern feel than the typical ristorante. I got a Margherita pizza which was a bit too saucy for me this time, but I'm glad I tried it. The basil was much more evenly spread this time! It was interesting to see how different the same thing was in two different cities. We also tried a frizzante vino bianco (fizzy white wine) that was pretty tasty! The name was something like Pigmentto Frizzante but I can't remember exactly. I also got to try a bite of someone's cheese tortellini with parmesan and balsamic vingear. I can't say I loved it right off the bat because the balsamic really threw me off with the cheesy pasta but as I kept eating, it was surprisingly delicious! We of course finished the night with some creamy gelato - I got stracciatella (because I can't not) and cannoli. There were literally bits of cannoli sheel and mini chocolate chips in a sweet ricotta gelato. It was so yummy! It's the first time I've seen that flavor in Europe but I want to have it again! Here's hoping Venice has some too.
My day in pictures: