Parmigiano Reggiano

 When people ask me what I love about living in Italy, it's usually food related.  And right next to gelato and pizza and lasagna and tortellini, is this magnificent stuff called parmigiano.  That's Italian for parmesan cheese.  To all my American friends and family, NO! it's the same grated dry junk that you can buy in the store.  That stuff is not only FAKE, it's an abomination to the word cheese.

Parmesan (parmigiano) is an aged cheese.  It's aged 12-36 months.  The older it is, the stronger the taste, and the better it is.  There's a very elaborate process of how to prepare the milk, cook it, form it with a net thing (if a worker from the factory read my explanation not only would they grimace, but they might shoot me too), and ..... after lots of hard work and turning, and working, this miracle of goodness comes out!

 These specialized factories had an open house where you could take a free tour, and even better get to try free samples at the end!  We went to a place called Sant'Angelo which is the place closest to us.

 There was an earthquake not too far from Bologna about a year ago.  This place was hit hard and almost the whole ware house was a total loss.

 This is the beginning process of starting to form the shape and parmesan.

 That poor bloke's job is to turn those 45 kg masses over so that they can shape correctly.  That's 100 lbs... and they make at least 40 of those a day!

 So here's their new warehouse with quake proof scaffolding.  Totally amazing!