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Published: June 19th 2017
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DAY 15 - Thursday Another all day tour focusing on Bologna and Modena.
A couple of people in the group decided to skip today. Cindy has food poisoning, she went out for dinner and was craving vegetables, ate a bunch of spinach and it made her very sick. She should have eaten that glutenous pizza instead... The other person, Vince, said "his throat is scratchy" but we think he's fine. He's had the hardest time getting along with everyone, he's very bossy, loud and tends to "know everything". He probably was tired of everyone calling him out and getting mad at him. He'll enjoy the break. It's cold and raining pretty hard, adding to the fatigue of the group. Everyone is in pretty good spirits considering, but it's apparent that trip is almost over and niceties are becoming more forced.
Our guide, Luca, gave us a tour of Bologna's city center and tried to include some food history as well. He was full of jokes and asides which would've gone down better without the rain. We had lunch at a long communal table in an unassuming trattoria. The food wasn't spectacular but the main attraction was pasta with sauce Bolognese. This
sauce is made from pork, veal and beef and dates back to the middle ages. It picked up a bit of tomato after New World imports first arrived. When made properly, it's velvety soft and rich, deep and spiked with a hint of tomato. What we received was flat, pedestrian and unremarkable. The sauce at Cook Street is light years ahead, which made John feel like he's doing the right thing with his students. We got back on the bus and drove to Modena, home of true Balsamic vinegar production. We visited a producer who makes the Traditional method (lots of aging, special woods, presented to a consortium for labeling) and the non traditional (post-war product, cheaper, less special). Seeing how little technology goes into such a highly regarded product was interesting for everyone. The tastings were generous, ending with vanilla ice cream with balsamic syrup on top. Everyone went nuts. John was a little confused, he thought everyone already knew about this flavor combination and made mental note to never assume anything. Back on the bus, short drive to the Modena suburb of Sorbara and a Lambrusco wine producer. Lambrusco is a grape dating back to Roman times. It
produces light red wines which are often sparkling. Sparkling red wine sounds a little weird to the average wine snob, but when paired with rich Emilian food it all begins to make perfect sense. In the US we don't get a lot of quality options for this grape, so many students took advantage of being able to pick up a few bottles there at the vineyard. The day ended by driving back to Parma. It was a fun day, especially the Balsamic producer and the ice cream! Nice way to finish of the trip. We arrived back in Parma around 5. Some of the students were going to the opera, kicking off the Verdi festival. We ran back to the room, ducked out of group dinner plans and packed for our early flight the next day. Dinner options were limited as Parma shuts down at the first drop of rain so we settled on La Duchessa, our standby in the Garibaldi square. Final pizzas, then a quick sleep before getting up early to ride trains and planes. Parma has been lovely. We don't know if our travels will ever bring us back, at least not together, so we look back
at it really warmly.
Violets, festivals, cheese-meat-balsamic, bread-pasta-pizza, starry night walks and a slow paced break from our regular life.
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