Italians and Their Food

It was a little difficult to get back into the swing of things this week after such a long break but it was a pretty normal week otherwise. But the heat is finally on our apartment! yeah warm radiators! Our clothes are actually drying on the drying racks now!

Cody and I took a couple of day trips this weekend, offered by our school and program (FUA = Florence University of the Arts and SAI = Study Abroad Italy -- always confusing to keep these straight even for us) We were joined by Carmel, Brie and Megan to see Pisa and Lucca on Friday and then Parma and Modena on Saturday. Both mornings we got up extremely early to catch a bus then headed off to a day of super cool tours. Friday we went to Pisa and saw the leaning tower!! It is pretty cool and fun fact: the leaning tower of Pisa is actually simply the bell tower for Pisa’s Duomo. I never knew that. So it’s in this large square with the cathedral, the baptistry, the cemetery, and then the leaning tower. It’s also probably the most beautiful bell tower in Italy. It’s round instead of square and is built with layers of pillars and arches in white stone - much prettier than the bell tower in Florence, in my opinion. If you’re curious, I’ll explain what we learned about it otherwise you can skip this next section:

The tower leans because it was built on a marshland and actually the other buildings with it are also a bit warped because of it. Pisa is close to the sea and a river so the ground below these important structures is quite soft and soggy, so even as they were building the tower it began to lean. The builders even tried to correct the problem by building its next layers a little off center as a counter weight. So really the tower is a little bit banana shaped instead of straight. The tower actually continues to sink/keep leaning and they’ve tried several methods to secure its safety. They first tried to pump water out of the ground in the area but there is so much water that they would have to pump constantly forever so it really didn’t do a thing. Next they tried to build a foundation beneath the tower, which was quite risky and also didn’t help to stabilize it either. So the next thing they did was basically strap bands around the tower attached to a great lead weight and actually very slowly hoisted the tower back up again. This worked but they will have to do it again in the future. Of course they would never intentionally pull the tower up until it stands straight because it is so famous for being a failure! Cool.

Our Pisa tour was quite funny because our guide was this goofy, German woman who snorted when she laughed. So amusing.

Then we spent the afternoon in Lucca – a small Tuscan city that still has its entire city wall still in tact. It’s also the “Town of 100 churches.” We saw several but not all, of course. They were unique and beautiful in style. Most were built in white stone with several pillars that were decorated with different patterns. We encountered some religious relics that we weren’t expecting to see – incorrupt bodies. heeby-jeebies. I guess there were some saintly people who miraculously didn’t decompose after they died so then basically their bodies were exhumed and put in glass coffins and displayed in churches and often they end up canonized. eek. If youire curious look up of France.

We walked around, bought some pastries and hot chocolate and enjoyed another beautiful day for taking in the fall colors.

Saturday was bright and early at 5am and off to Parma! Parma and Modena are not in Tuscany. They are in a different region called Emilio-Romagna, famous for it’s exceptional culinary arts (This is where the city of Bologna is located. Bologna is probably the food capital of Italy. You go there not to see the sights but to eat.) So it was a day of learning about food. So here is a really big culture clue for you: food is so important to Italy that certain products are protected by the country and receive labels of authenticity. I’ve learned about this a lot in my cooking class and it was especially emphasized as we learned about specific food products that originated in Parma and Modena. Parma is famous for it’s Parmesian cheese. Fun fact: the parm from this region is called Parmesiano-Reggiano – there was a fight over which producer originally manufactured this cheese so it was given both of their names. Fun fact two: Parmesan cheese is so popular and easy to use on almost everything because it's the only cheese that melts without becoming stringy! It’s kinda hard to explain but cheese with this name can only be made by a very strict process and when it’s ready it has to be tested by an official in order to be given Italy’s label of authenticity, which labels it as the original recipe Parmesiano-Reggiano made in it’s place of origin. If for some reason it is not approved, it has to be sold as regular cheese, does not get the label, and is not worth near as much, even if it tastes exactly the same. Crazy. This label is called DOP, meaning Denomination of Origin Protected. There are other labels like IGP, which means something like Indication of Geography Protected. This label means the product is made by the same methods but can be produced in other places besides its place of origin. This is all crazy food protection stuff that I’ve never experienced, but it’s pretty interesting that they care so much about their products and it makes Italy unique for its strict use of products from its own country. We were able to see the whole process they use to make this cheese at one of the factories. The best part is that we had to dress ourselves up in plastic lab coat, hairnet, booties, and facemask. This is some precious cheese! The other hilarious part is that we were taken to the farm where they keep their cows for milking. Cody thinks his dad would laugh a bit that we went on this trip to see cattle. haha

Parma is also famous for its “Prociutto di Parma.” Prociutto is cured ham. We also got to learn about this process and then were treated to a lunch to sample some with bread, cheese, potatoes, and salad. So good!

Then we went to Modena, which is famous for it’s balsamic vinegar. Delicious! Balsamic vinegar gets its name because when it was first produced it was used as a medicine for the stomach and a spoonful after a meal is still good for digestion. So it’s like a balm = balsamic vinegar. The process is really cool. They use the juice from black and white grapes and boil it for two days. There are several wooden barrels used for the process of flavoring and aging the vinegar; all types of trees that grow in Italy: cherry, chestnut, oak, juniper, and apple. The vinegar will be moved between barrels that steadily get smaller in size and alternate between different types of each of these woods, which flavor the vinegar. Due to evaporation, the barrels will lose about 10% of what they contained at the beginning. So every year they refill each starting with the smallest (last barrel) by taking 10% from the previous barrel, and that barrel gets filled with 20% from the one before it so that it’s full and so on. This will result in the first and largest barrel to become empty to be filled with new vinegar. The balsamic vinegar from Modena repeats this process for 12 years and also 25 years. Crazy! The end result is sweet and rich and flavorful and we really enjoyed our taste test of several types: their DOP 12 & 25 year vinegars, as well as vinegars they make with orange, apple, and just white grapes. They also make some candies and chocolates containing the vinegar. Pour balsamic vinegar with a little olive oil on your lettuce salad and it will be delicious! A type like the 25-year is apparently amazing on strawberries or ice cream. We haven’t tried it, and it sounds strange, but it seems to me like that would be pretty good! This was probably our favorite product that we learned about that day.

6 weeks left! We could almost start a countdown… wow.

Buona Serata!