The Anniversary in Iceland

by ginnyinshanghai

I alluded to it earlier, we were here for a special anniversary milestone – 30 years. WOW!

Never crossed my mind 30 years ago that we would be celebrating this together, in Iceland – but here we are. 🙂

Our restaurant of choice for our anniversary meal is TIDES, part of the Edition Hotel, one of Reykjavik’s newest. On our last visit in 2019, it was still under construction.

Their guiding principle is to serve the best seafood from the pristine waters of Iceland,along with locally-sourced meat and ingredients. All was cooked to perfection on their Josper charcoal grill – smoke being their specialty. Josper? What is a Josper charcoal grill you ask?

Had to search the internet. Josper was born in 1969 in Barcelona when innovative technology and tradition joined hands. With over 40,000 clients, their grills are the perfect partner for the most demanding chefs wanting high quality grilling over charcoal. There you have it. No idea what model was being used here in this restaurant but I found some stock photos. As you might imagine there are a number of models and price points.

Let’s get back to the food………

Wine and a cocktail started the meal. White wine for me. No, I didn’t drink the entire bottle, just one glass.

Eric’s cocktail was the first introduction to ‘smoke’, their signature cocktail ‘Ice & Fire’.

It contained gin, honey, ginger, lime and bitters, oh yeah, and smoke. Eric said it went down very smooth. I had a sip, not bad.

Since he was getting lamb, he ordered red wine for his meal.

Bread followed our drinks, getting us ready for the meal. Very tasty cheese popovers (?) with salt-topped Icelandic butter.

We ordered a starter, Mediterranean Tuna Crudo: tuna with blueberries, orange puree, sunchokes, coconut-almond leche de tigre. Quite frankly I was a little skeptical when I saw it on the menu. Boy was I wrong. We were both reaching for the last morsel.

My selection was the Braised Icelandic Lamb Gnocchi: potato gnocchi, braised lamb sauce, roasted tomatoes and Feykir cheese. It was enjoyable, a hearty selection that filled me up quickly.

Eric ordered the North Icelandic Lamb Fillet: lamb with caramelized celeriac puree, pickled burnt shallots and red currant jus. It was great. He shared some of the lamb and that’s the reason I started eating lamb – just saying.

Naturally we had to celebrate with desserts. My selection was the Omnom Chocolate Banoffee: chocolate cake, caramelized bananas, chocolate cream and crunchy coffee phyllo dough. Desserts are always a winner!

If an ice cream option is available, 9 times out of 10, that will be Eric’s selection, and this was one of those times. Berry Sorbet: mixed berries, mint marinated strawberries and roasted chocolate. The berry sorbet had some of the most intense berry flavor than anything we’ve ever tasted. Excellent!

Two young kids, starting a life together in 1994, not know what was going to happen, but going to do it together – hitting the 30 year mark.

Here’s hoping we make it another 30 years. Happy Anniversary hon! Thanks for Iceland. 🙂

Ginny

Iceland’s Sky Lagoon

by ginnyinshanghai

This had been on my list once I heard it was built in 2021. Most visitors stop at The Blue Lagoon for their Icelandic thermal experience. Nothing wrong with that, they’ve built a solid business model – everyone knows about it. Most visitors stop there after landing or before getting on the plane to leave. We are not most visitors. 🙂

As the owners were building they took a holistic approach to sustainability for themselves and when selecting materials and construciton partners. Soaking in warm, healing mineral-rich geothermal water is a beloved Icelandic tradition being a part of most communities. It’s where you meet your neighbors and hear the latest goings-on.

This place is ……..

……..a journey of the senses, powered by the elements. LOVE it!

This was exactly what we needed after the ‘angst’ of getting to Iceland. There are a few different packages that can be booked (a reservation is a must – we had a hard time finding one) with the SKY package being our selection.

This package included private changing & showering, direct stairs to the lagoon and the 7-step Ritual. More on that in a bit. But in case you get stuck on the word private? You might think – huh? Isn’t everything private? Think of your gym class. Yep, locker-type changing rooms, communal locker showers BEFORE putting on your swimsuit and stepping into the lagoon. That is the norm around here. We’ve got no problem with that and have done it in Iceland previously. The only way to get the 7-step Ritual was through the SKY package. But enough of that. Let’s get into the water.

Instant warmth, I’m going to love this. Eric, he’s not the biggest fan of the thermal water, but there are pockets where cooler water prevails – he has to hunt for them, ha!

We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet and it’s heaven.

We went straight for the waterfall. Wellllll, maybe not me.

Time for a bit of refreshment.

And just in case there is some unsafe behavior…

The sea meets the sky at the edge of their infinity pool.

So I mentioned this 7-step Ritual.

With a map included below. All of my photos thus far are part of number 1, the lagoon, begging your body to slow down.

Number 2 the cold plunge – no way. Heartier souls than me were getting in and getting out extremely fast. Entering this portal started the rest of your Ritual.

Number 3 the Sauna was okay for about 1 minute – maybe.

Jumped into Number 4 the cold mist – just to cool down and man – I needed it. Number 5 the body scrub – undoubtedly the best step for me.

I was able to stay in longer for Number 6, the steam room. but showering off in Number 7 was bittersweet.

You’re done. At this point, Eric was very excited to get back into the main lagoon.

It was time to slowly make our way back to the shower & changing area.

Total time was about 1.5 hours. It was relaxing and everything I wanted it to be. I would definitely do it again!

No lie, was a little shaky getting out. All the relaxing thermal water (and possibly the lack of sleep) had an effect. Stopping at their cafe for a little refreshment did wonders for the body.

Ginny

Iceland 2024

by ginnyinshanghai

We came back!!!!!

We hit another anniversary milestone and I couldn’t believe that Eric offered this option to celebrate the years. I’ve always known I would be going back but had no plans formulated. But even before we left the states, we had some ‘angst’. Really?

We booked our flights on Icelandair, but we had a layover in Boston, with the first leg being served by JetBlue. Okay, no problem, until we couldn’t check-in online and get our boarding passes for the first leg. Okay. We got to Terminal C and the service desk for JetBlue could check us in – but no boarding passes yet. Aarrgghh. Okay, she assured us we had seats, but still had to go to the gate for our seats. Okay. I’m not liking the sound of this but there’s nothing we can do at this point.

Being in Terminal C gave us the chance to try out their new lounge. The bar was on the 4th floor and overlooked the other arriving passengers.

Very nice and obviously very new.

There were a few differences between the one we normally visit in Terminal B. All the drinks and food was complimentary in Terminal B. Here there were comp options and other things had small surcharges. I couldn’t resist ordering these fried cheese sticks – very 1980s – good, hot and tasty.

Okay, got to the gate, got our seats……..the absolute, v.e.r.y last row in the plane. We’re smiling only because we’re on the plane.

Plenty of time for our layover and the next flight was again, v.e.r.y different, luckily in the opposite way. We were some of the first to board and were given an option of prosecco while the remainder were boarding. I’m liking this! Eric stuck with the Icelandic water since he would be driving after landing.

Our flight and temps when we land.

This flight was such a difference. Almost made up for the earlier flight – almost. Eric slept 3+ hours of the 4.5 hour flight. He felt somewhat refreshed, I did not.

Not too often do we walk off the plane onto the tarmac.

Since our bags were carry-on size, no waiting at the baggage claim. We walked outside towards the Blue Car Rental Service area and got our wheels for the next 9 days.

Next up? Storm Hotel in Reykjavik.

Adrienne and I stayed there in 2019 and were quite happy with the location, the accommodations AND the included (help yourself breakfast) before crashing. Similar to the past, we paid for the room the night prior and could instantly get into it.

That extra expense is sooooooo worth it. I would advise anyone coming from the states to do it. All of our American flights get in super early. Our flight was on-time at 5:30am, their time. We got a few bites of breakfast then I got almost 4 hours of sleep before our next adventure. Which I know will be one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Ginny

I’m apologizing in advance………I was so very tired when writing this, I kept going over and over and over everything I wrote. Undoubtedly there are some wrong words used, but I needed to posted.

Southern Hill Farms

by ginnyinshanghai

Located between Orlando and Clermont, this was a great weekend(s) visit. Not too hot – just yet, but bordering on it. We have driven past this when it was a dirt road with citrus groves and cattle ranching on both sides. Now the road was paved – sweet!

S.H.F. became widely known as the Blueberry Farm but they are so much more. First a bit of their history.

It is family owned & operated with the 3rd and 4th generation’s families the current operators. The family originated from the eastern shores of Viginia at the turn of the twentieth century. Mid-century the youngest son made the bold move to bring his family to central Florida near Lake Apopka. After some time, that area was shut down for farming and they landed in their present location near Clermont, growing landscape trees for Florida.

In 2010 they planted 40 acres of commercially harvested blueberries and in 2014 opened the 120-acre farm for the community. You check-in at the blueberry tent, get your bucket, peruse the map to find the blueberry rows that can be picked and start working, I mean start having fun.

We didn’t choose to pick the blueberries but plenty of families did.

They also rent these wagons.

S.H.F. includes u-pick and harvested blueberries, strawberries, peaches and seasonal vegetables. Fields of sunflowers & zinnias are planted for the Spring and Fall. But again, it is so much more. They have a food market store filled with their branded products.

Blueberry donuts – BTW, we ate one of their hot, fresh ones on our first visit but you could bring some home if you so choose.

A covered pavilion housed a number of eating establishments and plenty of seating underneath.

Here were a few of their offerings:

Also have a small train for the kiddos, and the young at heart.

We visited twice and on our last visit, there was live music playing. Sorry no video or sound-bites. 😦

But where are the veggies?

Here you go………

Along with a few more details concerning what is available one of the days we visited, pricing and informational row signs near the bottom of the photo.

squash
jalapeno peppers
zucchini

kale

And here’s the gang in action. Our first visit green beans were available to pick. We had them later that night – now that is fresh!

Second visit was the squash and zucchini as seen below.

THIS was what I was the most excited about.

Fields of sunflowers and zinnias are planted for the Spring and Fall.

One day there was no fee to enter this fenced area (due to the prevalent cloud cover) however our second visit was a beautiful sunny day. Sunny days meant $6 dollars was needed whether you were going to cut some or not. Part of the fee went towards a ‘free’ sunflower. After that each sunflower was $2 and the zinnias were $1 each. Still quite a good deal – just saying.

I’m good with paying. Quite a few people were creating video rolls or posting on social media and not actually getting any flowers. It definitely made sense to charge a fee.

Florida is not really known for growing peaches but there is some small pockets of peaches planted commercially using varieties developed for the Florida climate. They were just starting to harvest the fruit on our visit. We purchased a few – man, they were juicy………but still needed to develop their flavor.

There was one last shot that I couldn’t resist. We need more of these signs. 🙂

Going to have some exciting posts coming soon! At least exciting in my book – V.E.R.Y exciting. Stay tuned.

Ginny

Florida Zip-Lining

by ginnyinshanghai

Have I mentioned I LOVE zip-lining? Have I mentioned I have zip-lined in (1) Florida – 3 times (2) Iceland (3) Phuket, Thailand and (4) Niagara Fall, Canada? I could go zip-lining every weekend if I had the chance. – just saying. Eric, not so much. He did it once with me and after that, he stays on the ground.

This Zip-line experience was fairly close to us, we didn’t have to leave the state or country-just travel a bit to the next county east to Gatorland.

A few fun facts about Gatorland:

~110 acre theme park and wildlife preserve, founded in 1949.

~Site was former cattle land and it is still privately owned by the Godwin family, who founded the park.

~Originally called Florida Wildlife Institute, then changes to Snake Village and Alligator Farm and ultimately in 1954 becomes Gatorland.

Before we even get to the REAL reason we were there, let’s see what else Gatorland had to offer. Birds:

This bird, apparently had lost his fear of gators or was somehow hoping for a free meal or leftovers.

Let’s show you more gators. This guy (girl?) was fat and sassy. Probably about 10′ long.

This crocodile was getting a ‘spa treatment’. Can you see the little fishies swimming around him?

Another bird that seems to have lost their fear of these reptiles OR knows they can fly away pretty darn fast.

These gators were a bit friendly, laying on top of each other. Why? No one was moving, just hanging out.

This park has a number of signs that made you chuckle, but still got their message across.

But let’s get to the REAL reason we were visiting………..

Here are a few of the zips.

No lie, I did NOT like this bridge that was part of the adventure course.

While we didn’t buy their photo package deal, we got one photo at the very end of the experience.

Before leaving Gatorland, we visited one more piece of their park: their nature swamp boardwalk.

Walking through the boardwalk, it was hard to believe that a major highway was a short distance away. The cypress trees really block out the noise.

There were a few flowers gamely trying to reach the sunlight.

It was just starting to get muggy and hot. Go figure – Florida in the late spring. Ha!

I’ve found a few more ziplines in the Central Florida area. We discovered last year that a zipline in the summer is no fun – too sweaty. We’ll be making plan for this Fall to go more zipline exploring.

One last photo to commemorate our experience. This was part of the original entrance when the park opened in 1949.

Back to Rome

by ginnyinshanghai

Our time in Italy has truly flown by. We headed back to Rome before catching our flight to the states. One more ‘cool’ thing about those Bologna porticoes…….the sidewalk or terrazza. It was a smooth walk schlepping our bags to the train station.

Really hard to see, but there are a number of us all going in the same direction – to the train station.

Here are a few shots of the Italian countryside. Really hard to get great shots when you’re going +150 mph!

For our last night in Rome, we stayed at a hotel, Hotel Manfredi.

Interesting elevator to get to the 3rd floor for the reception desk. There were rules inside limiting people and/or luggage. FYI – one time another guest, reminded us that if all of us went inside, we would be over the limit. Ok. We followed the rules. One person stayed behind.

It was a very nice hotel, but after staying in AirBNBs the last 2 weeks, the space was a bit of a shock. Poor Adrienne ended up with a cot, a very nice cot, but a cot.

They packed a lot of things in the tiny space – remember there were 3 of us.

We were starving! The desk clerk recommended a walkable place for lunch: Dilla. He tried to make us a reservation, but no one would answer. We walked and got lucky! I believe we were the last ones to be seated with no reservation. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Eric ordered tuna tartare and Roman-braised artichokes.

Our last chance for Buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes.

While the girls ordered cacio pepe (left) and pasta carbonara (right).

Two fabulous desserts were ordered and shared.

While walking off our food intake, we came across this sight……….the eyes were a little strange. No matter, kids were still running up for photos.

Our last dinner in Rome was fabulous. The desk clerk made us reservations and they definitely were needed.

Starting with the bread service, we have definitely elevated our dining.

We shared seafood crudo. OMG! We could have ordered one for each of us. As it was, we each picked items that interested us until all was gone. It was fantastic.

I ordered stuffed ravioli (no, I don’t remember what the stuffing was………..). It was very good – much better than my selection in Florence.

Adrienne ordered the seafood medley – lots of different seafoody things.

Eric was delighted with his whole fried seabass. It was brought to the table to ‘show’ him before she deboned it. It was lying on pan-fried potatoes – which were delicious.

Desserts could not be denied. Adrienne loved her pistachio cake, Eric liked his gelato, and I loved my chocolate cake.

This was one of the few places, we walked down into the restaurant.

This was a totally great way to end our last night and stay in Italy.

We had a fabulous meal, a fabulous vacation and a fabulous time in Italy.

One last note…………….arranging our taxi to the airport proved interesting. Apparently, there was a marathon race in downtown Rome the next morning. We had to leave by 7am or getting out would require walking to a station, transferring to another station that could take us to the airport outside of the city center. We had plenty of time at the Rome airport. 🙂

Ginny

Bologna (Neighborhood) Eats

by ginnyinshanghai

One reason we like scheduling a food tour on our first day is asking a local for ‘authentic’ places to eat, hopefully within walking distance. One suggestion we TOTALLY loved and went back two more times (Eric has somewhat gotten over his rule of no repeats on vacation) but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about Cesari.

Da Cesari restaurant was born as an Osteria and wine retailer at the beginning of the 20th century.

Since 1955 the Cesari family has run this old meeting place for families in Bologna. It served a typical menu with regional cuisine. Now, we as tourists can also enjoy this wonderful family location.

Like every good meal, we started with wine. White for me, red for the other two.

We had a delicious, d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s, absolutely tasty pork product, special to that region: Culatello di Zibello DOP with S. Ilario butter.

You might have noticed in the first photo, there looked like it was two stories – yep, we were upstairs. Were we offended or unhappy? NO! First thing asked was ‘Do you have reservations?’ and we did not, but explained we came based upon a local recommendation. He went to his reservation book, and said yes, we can seat you upstairs. Great!

Eric had pasta with shaved fresh truffles – now he likes truffles – with home-made spaghetti.

Adrienne ordered Tagliatelle with classic Bolognese sauce.

I had a delicious entre: Scaloppina with cheese, parma ham and roasted potatoes.

I wish we had room for dessert, but we did not. We had stopped at another local place prior to this and filled up on their goodies. When were leaving, we (and by that I mean Eric) talked with one of the family members that was working, and he said it was his father that started it. We expressed our appreciation for the meal and that he had seated us. If you’re in Bologna – please stop there.

La Frasca – a cozy tavern and brewery in the heart of Bologna, founded thanks to their love of authentic food and hospitality.

Tradition comes to life in an environment that smells like home – their words, not mine. 🙂 But oh, so true.

We started with a few appetizers, fried olives & fries…………Okay, everybody understands the fries, but fried olives? Yep. If we see them again, they are being ordered. Eric tried to dissect them to see if he could duplicate once home. We’ll see.

The grilled veggies were a departure from the norm for us. I pretty much left them alone and ate most of the fries.

Meal selections were grilled eggplant (Eric), Bolognese pasta (Adrienne) and a toasted sandwich (me).

While I don’t have a lot to say about La Frasca, it was in the middle of the market district, down one of the alleys, really good food, we were hungry and really enjoyed our meal. Done. I do hope I see the fried olives, at the very least at home. Hon? Start working on that, please.

The place we continue to talk about and became part of the family here………L’Emporio.

L’Emporio is an emporium of wine and delicious deli foods from Bologna. They only serve the highest quality artisanal products, and you can tell the difference.

The owner, Nic makes homemade tigelle sandwiches, meat and cheese boards and other rotating specialties to enjoy with your wine. Quite frankly, he asked what we were interested in, we shared a few words and after that, we put ourselves in his hands. Yum, meat and cheese.

This wall had items that were VERY local, many of which he had visited either the vineyards, their stores or talked to the owners before incorporating them into his place.

Loved how he showcased his food case. Notice the light?

Here is Nic (sorry not the best photo). I was trying to get the meats in the photo, then he stepped in since he was working and I thought Hey! why not include him.

His father was also in the shop, working. Yes, yes, another ‘not so great’ photo. Hang tight.

He brought us his specialty that he created for the shop and his customers. Delicious!

Our second visit, more delicious meats and cheese. Yes, we were usually one of the first or only ones in the place since we were eating on ‘our time’ not Italian time.

We let him build the platter. When setting it on the table he described all of the items on there – sorry I can’t duplicate that. It was just as good as the photo shows. 🙂

He usually surprised us with a specialty, sometimes on the house. This was one. I tried it, not one off my favorites, but Eric got extra to eat.

Waited for the other two so got a quick photo of what was turning into a highlight of our time in Bologna.

On our third visit……………yes, I typed t.h.i.r.d visit, we asked him to build us anther platter. Surprised? Did we really care what each of them were? Not really, we just dove right in.

We became known as those ‘Disney’ people during our visits. We (again, I mean Eric) struck up conversation with those near us and shared stories and questions. We met a number of the ‘regulars. This is a great neighborhood place. On our last visit we got to meet his girlfriend and his brother-in-law.

We came in as tourists and left as family. I started following him in Instagram, just so I can relive all of the great foodie memories we found here and in Bologna. I’d like to tell you to go – but we don’t want it to lose its small-town, big city charm.

Ginny

Bologna Porticoes and San Lucas

by ginnyinshanghai

Portico defined – a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures.

Okay – got that out of the way. Why talk about porticoes? They are everywhere in the city center.

They are part of the culture and architectural heritage of Bologna. No other city in the world has as many. They were built to increase living spaces, with the added benefit of a covering in possible inclement weather or the hot Italian sun.

Within the historic center they cover 24 miles. If you include outside of the medieval city walls now you’re talking 33 miles. The first evidence dates to 1041 and were originally wooden. In the mid 1500s brick or stone took over construction.

A portico featured prominently for one of our ‘walks’. The Sanctuary of Madonna di San Luca is a symbol of Bologna and sited atop a forested hill. The church is the most important sanctuary in the civil and religious history of the city.

I had read about it before embarking on our travels and thought the ‘walk’ would be a good memory. Little did I know……….

One of our last free mornings, we started the journey – early. Yep, we’re still walking through Bologna to get to the climb – no one is around.

Walked through one of the city gates before the true start of our trek.

This was created so that traffic didn’t interfere with the journey to the top. In my mind, it signaled the beginning.

This portico has +600 archways and is the longest in the world at 3.8 km and 666 arches.

Walking to the church on top was considered a pilgrimage that started in the 12th century. More on that in a minute. We walk. Yes, that is Adrienne ahead of me.

And walk.

Add in a little construction – now I know why the pathway is so smooth.

And walk more.

What I don’t have a photo of is the stairs, stairs and more stairs that continue forever. And yes, the last bit of the journey before reaching the top, is more stairs. She’s an athlete, I am not. The joke for the remainder of the trip was ‘She tried to kill me’ with the climb. My legs hurt right now as I’m typing this post. I’m not lying – it was tough. Towards the end, my stopping to catch my breath…….and rest my legs……….was getting tiresome.

Telling my story to friends when I got home about walking to the top, apparently, it’s a ‘thing’ for those that know Bologna. Even now in today’s age, it is considered a pilgrimage to make it to the top. Okay, it WAS worth it.

The round part of the building was open when we arrived and the only space available for us to explore. Why was this church here? A church as a chapel has existed on this hill for about 1000 years. The current building was built in the 18th century to replace the 15th century construction.

Inside nuns were reciting their prayers.

The dome………

A side chapel…….

Tradition holds that in the 12th century, a pilgrim from the Byzantine Empire came to Bologna with an icon of the Virgin of Madonna and child, from a temple in Constantinople. A pilgrimage occurs during Ascension week.

Another bonus was the view of the Italian countryside.

Along with a hilltop view of Bologna.

It was time to go back down to the city to tell my husband ‘She tried to kill me’.

As we retraced our steps, a number of the shop fronts were not open but they chose an additional way to advertise their business on the metal grating covering their storefront. Cute.

We both chuckled when we walked past this business. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last time we saw a bit of Disney.

Ginny

Oh yeah, whose idea was it to go up – mine, as Adrienne continued to remind me.

Bologna Agro -tour Part 2

by ginnyinshanghai

After learning and tasting Parmesan cheese, it was time for wine. We drove 30 minutes before stopping at…….

Totally loved this stop. With only the three of us and our tour guide, it felt like stopping at a family friend’s place. We walked through some of the nearby vineyards.

Looking at the gnarled vines gave you a feeling for the age and strength of this vineyard. Also, the photo below gives you a glimpse of the Italian countryside.

We got a quick photo – with a nearby castle in the background – before heading to the tasting room.

We started with this wine having a little bit of fizz. Have I mentioned…….I like fizz?

Behind the wine glass (above) you can see some local Parma we enjoyed while we were waiting for these toasted sandwiches with mortadella. I never enjoyed mortadella………until I came to Italy – delicious. I’m now spoiled.

We tried another wine and pork product – very good.

Then our hostess brought out this rose’ – loved it. Yes, it has some fizz. Like a number of Americans, I started drinking wine with White Zinfandel – sorry hubby – a number of years ago. 🙂 Not necessarily the best wine, but they had a great marketing campaign, and we drank.

Along with more meat product – such a hardship.

I haven’t thrown in many flower photos, so here you go. Flowering trees were in bloom during our time in the countryside.

We probably stayed longer than normal, but it was so comfortable we didn’t want to leave. We grabbed a photo of the group before heading out.

What about my duck? Got a quick photo before leaving.

One last stop was on the agenda before heading back to Bologna. Let’s learn about balsamic vinegar.

What is balsamic vinegar? A dark, concentrated, intensely flavoured vinegar originating in Modena, Italy, made wholly or partially from grape must: freshly crushed grape juice with all the skins, seeds and stems. This was a family business as were most in this area.

First stop – vinegar barrels.

As the juice condenses, the liquid was put into smaller barrels. These barrels were mostly composed of oak wood.

Upstairs was another room of smaller barrels, getting closer to the finish line. The wonderful smell of balsamic vinegar was getting stronger. The resulting thick syrup, called mosto cotto in Italian, is subsequently aged for a minimum of 12 years in a battery of several barrels of successively smaller sizes. I mentioned most barrels were made of oak. They had several different wood barrels and let us take a whiff. You could tell a difference in the product as it finishes. The light-colored wood was cherry wood.

Now it was time for the fun part – eating! First up was onion jam prepared with balsamic vinegar, topping ricotta cheese- covered bread. Oh yeah, and some local red wine.

Gelato topped with whipped cream, some nuts and drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

I thought the cookie was going to be our last tidbit.

I was wrong! Our last morsel was a cookie crumble topped with gelato and 25-year balsamic vinegar. O.M.G. Yes, they saved the best for last.

There was absolutely no pressure or expectation to purchase anything from our stops. but hey – how can you leave this without adding something to your bag? We couldn’t!

This was a totally awesome tour – not our norm. There was a maximum of 8 but as you could see (or guess) it was the three of us and the guide.

Ginny

Couldn’t resist throwing in this photo taken at our last stop. Yep, that’s Eric on top of a Lamborghini.

Bologna Agro-tour – Part 1

by ginnyinshanghai

This was a tour we booked at the last minute and was our last full day in Bologna and our chance to get out of the city. But first, we made a stop at one of the oldest pastry & coffee shops in Bologna. I could find it again………….but never got the name nor a photo of the outside. We ordered our beverage of choice and a pastry while Ricardo prepped us for the day’s activities.

First stop on today’s tour – cheese – and we headed to Modera.

We got picked up fairly early (7 am) to ensure we saw (most) of the cheese-making process for Parmasean. We missed two steps, the curdling of the milk and subsequent separation. Use your imagination from the photos below. Curdling occurs naturally if cows’ milk is left open in a warm environment to air.

Curdled milk poured into the tables.

Separation of the curdling gives you this delicious Ricotta. I’ll state this right now………this is not a post about cheese-making, listing all of the sciences and steps involved. If you need that – google it.

Separated product becomes fresh Ricotta.

Milk product is placed into these heated copper bowls.

This is when we arrived. The solid matter comes together and at this point the gentleman was loosening that which was at the bottom of the pot.

The pictures below show more of the next few steps.

The cheese master was involved in the next steps, a culmination of 10 years work. If he makes a mistake, two rounds of cheese are lost.

A hydraulic lift assisted with putting these into the cheese molds.

The cheese was stamped and strict records are kept to track this until sold to the consumer.

This mold ultimately indicates this is Parmesan cheese and other important info.

They are soaked in salted water before drying and then put into the warehouse next door.

And what a sight to see – amazing!

I don’t think I can fit one of these into my suitcase – but I’d like to try.

Inspections occur periodically and the wheels are stamped at that time.

So we asked how the mold impressions seem to darken during the process. The answer……..cheese dust. Huh? We got lucky and the machine that ‘brushes’ the cheese was at the very end of the row.

Split the video because the ‘brushing’ went on for quite a while. But then the cheese, goes back into its original space, turned upside down.

Another step is tapping the cheese round as part of the inspections.

Before leaving the drying warehouse, we captured one photo. There is a.l.o.t. of cheese here.

But you know………………..there is one step that needs to occur before all of this starts.

This rooster wanted to prove they ruled the area.

One cow wanted to be the center of my attention.

We walked past this contraption and what was happening? If you have an itch you can’t reach, come to the brush and it does the job (and keeps things clean and cows happy).

Remove the hairnets and the booties and it was time to taste their goodies. The front part of this building was a market where many locals stop in. I mentioned Labrusca in one of my earlier posts – love it. Finally, a red wine with a bit of ‘sparkle’ that was a dry wine. Who knew there were so many options. Not me!

All the products were either made here (cheese) or sold in their market. Perfect timing for a snack during the tour.

Those round ‘crackers’ seen below – parmesan cheese crisps – delicious!

I originally was going to have 1 post for the tour, but after I started writing, I’d rather break it down into manageable bites – more coming soon.

Ginny