Parma (with pictures)

The first two nights of our trip were spent at a castle (Antico Borgo di Tabiano) outside Parma.  We took a bus from Mestre (outside Venice) for 3 hours and then did a 20km ride to our hotel.  The climb at the end turned out to be the steepest of the week (in part because the next day, we had to take a detour that would have been a 16% grade and we all, even me, decided to skip that).  Here are some pictures from where we were staying and of our visit to a parmesan cheese farm.

View from the castle/fortress yard (we were staying in the buildings whose roofs you see).

Walking to the fortress. A rich family lives there, at least part time, and we got to visit several rooms (which were cold and drafty as you'd expect a castle to be)

View of the fortress from below.

Random view as we biked.

I think this is the only picture of me in the entire set.  It was supposed to be a still but Jay got it into video mode.  Sorry.

On the second day we visited a cheese farm (organic parmesano-reggiano) where the cows are raised, milked, the cheese is made, aged and in part sold (they also make fantastic gelato from the leftovers -- some of the milk going into parmesan is skim).  Our guide, who spoke limited English, was a real character.  She yelled at people who were chatting during her lecture.  But she was very passionate (and gave us lots of free samples of both cheese and gelato).

Our guide, Saverio, translates what happens as the milk is being heated.

You can get a better view of the vat size in this pic.  Each vat makes 2  80lb wheels.

The wheels are soaked in a salt brine for a couple of weeks. 

Then they are stored in a climate controlled room.  They get "dusted" by a robot every couple of weeks to keep the dirt off. The darker the wheel the older the cheese.  It isn't "real" parmesana-reggiano unless it is aged 24 months (and meets some other tests), but this place ages some of their cheese for 36 months; we tasted some of that, and it was lovely.

We are bringing home a kilo of 3 year old parmesan, so if we invite you to dinner in the next six months, you may want to request pasta :-)