It all started at 4am. and yes, I'm sure you just reread that sentence. I said it....4am I woke up to catch our bus and the Piazza Independanzia at 5:15 am! It was crazy! I can easily say I got 4 hours of sleep that night. It was pretty terrible. When we get on the bus, I pass out. Are you really that surprised? Our first stop? Parma!!! Land of the Cheese! When we first arrived there it was freezing outside and a woman came out and told us about the cheese factory a little bit because it's loud once we got in there. Then she comes out with this box. What's in the box
?? Uniforms! Because it's a factory we had to dress up in these foot booties, lab coats and funky hats. Oh we were attracitve. Trust me. We were all the epitome of supermodels. Don't you think so? The first room that we all entered was where all the milk came in. They were placed in these large vats that were very hot and then mechanically mixed until the milk would start to cook and eventually curdle. And you all know that when milk curdles it produces cheese (for the most part). Then this man that worked there went to each one of the vats and took what look like a giant whisk and stirred it. These men that worked in this factory were so strong. Who would've thought that working in a cheese factory would make you that much stronger?
After standing in that freezing room for over a half hour watching the milk curdle and continuously being stirred, we were taken into another room. Inside this room, you could see the cheese inside the molds that produce their "wheel-shape". Our tour guide 
showed us the piece of fabric that they put aroudn the wet cheese after it's put into the molds which gives it that writing on the side that says Parmigiana over and over again with the date it was produced on it. They imprint it onto the cheese themself. After being shown that, we were taken into a room where there must be at least 300 cheese wheels sitting in fluid that helps enhance their flavor. They stay in there, the guide stated, for about 25 days. The wheels floating on the fluid reminded me of buoys in a swimming pool and all I really wanted to do the whole time was jump on them to see if they would hold me up but I think that may have gotten me kicked out of the factory, so I witheld. But it did look very cool and couldn't believe that cheese took this much effort. After, they took us back into that first room to show us the process of how they turn the milk
into the cheese wheel. So what they did was they got what looked like
canvas nets and they would dig it down into the hot milk and pull out the curd. Then, two guys would spins it so that the curd would become a large ball of cheese. Being still hot, they then placed the cheese into these large molds, to form their wheel shape and place what looked like heavy plates on top to keep the cheese down and in the molds. They continued to do this until all of the molds were full. I actually filmed a video of them doing this whole process so watch and see exactly what I saw!!
But I would have to say that my favorite part by far was the room we went to afterwards. I call it, the Cheese Room! This is where they place the cheese after it is done being prepared, it will sit in this room for years to age. The more years that the cheese ages, the better the cheese. With my love of cheese, it was like a chocolate lover walking into Willy Wonka's Factory. See for yourself:
After the tour, we recieved free samples and it was quite delicious cheese. But what cheese isn't, right? We then continued to get onto the bus and head to the next stop also in Parma. The Proscuitto Factory! We walked in and took a quick tour of the factory and then we had a proscuitto tasting! Let me just say that the smell was VILE! Everyone in there thought they were going to throw up, including me. Just seeing all of this pig hanging around sitting there for months and months forms this smell that is like poison to your nose. But then afterwards when we got to do the tasting, and it was amazing! I ate my whole plate plus bread, plus a quarter of another plate. When meat of any kind is put in front of me? Oh, trust me, I will eat it all up. Then they brought out dessert which wasn't all that great but I was stuffed from the Proscuitto anyway. That was definitely a good lunch for me. I would eat that again anyday.
Once we left the Proscuitto Factory, we hopped on the bus for one more ride to Modena, to see the Balsamic Vinegar Factory. We were on the bus for so long during this day that I just wanted to take an 8 hour nap, but the bus rides were so short that it's impossible to get a good rest while traveling back and forth. So just imagine how tired we were.
When we got to the Balsamic Vinegar factory, a woman took us up to the second floor wher there was vinegar sitting in barrels aging. She said that a good, expensive balsamic is in the barrel for 25 years while some are in there for 12 that are really good as well but just cheaper. When she finished talking about the production process, she took us downstairs for a tasting. These were incredible! My favorite by far was the Apple Balsamic Vinegar. I wanted to just keep trying it. I think that and the white pear was everyone's favorite. Silly me forgot to bring in my wallet so I never bought any but a lot of people went home that day with bottles of balsamic vinegar. (Don't you worry though, all of these products can be bought in the US!)
After we left that factory we finally got on the bus to head back to Firenze. I think I definitely got the most sleep on that ride home. When we arrived home I knew that it was time for bed. The tours were amazing and I would definitely tell anybody to go on them because watching the process of how to make cheese, balsamic vinegar, and proscuitto was was actually very invigorating and I think it's an important trip especially when you're in Italy.
For right now I must say Buona Notte.
May the travels continue and the memories be made for a lifetime.
Ciao!
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