Reggio Emilia

We arrived in Reggio Emilia late in the afternoon? Reggio where? Although classified as a city, it’s more like a small town, in the heart of the Emilio-Romagna region of Italy. It’s famous for its cheese production – it is the centre for Parmigiano Reggiana. Hotel Posta is the former horse post from days of yore – in fact some parts of it date back to the 16^th century. The current owner is the 4^th generation of the family to own it - about which more later.

We were up with the lark to take a short bus ride to a local cheese factory. We were all on time, this time it was the bus driver who was late. He blamed traffic. There is no traffic. Anyway, we were soon all aboard and on our way to the factory. We’d missed the beginning, and were fully prepared to face the wrath of our guide (apparently last year when they were late, they were roundly scolded), but this time it was all smiles…either they’d sacked the previous guide, or they’d been on a Customer Service course since then.

We’d missed the milk delivery part of the tour, but joined in where they were heating up the milk then adding rennet to create curds and whey. Our guide, Anne, explained the cheese-making process, which is roughly similar to all other cheese-making processes. She was at pains to point out that what makes parmesan unique is the grass and other feed the cows eat, and that it only comes from this specific area. After draining and being put in moulds, at this stage a special band is placed around the cheese, imprinting it with Parmigiano Reggiano, the date, the factory and batch numbers. This only stays on for 24 hours and is sufficient to stay on the cheese for the rest of its life. It’s immersed in brine for 24 days, by which time the salt has penetrated 3 inches into the cheese. The rest of the salting process takes place by osmosis after the cheese is taken to the warehouse, where it matures for a minimum of 11 months, making a full year including all the other bits. Usually, however, it’s aged far longer than that.

Beaucoup de lait, pas de fromage...

Beaucoup de fromage, pas de lait

The smell when you walk into the warehouse is amazing, and Anne invited us to described the odour, including notes of citrus, pineapple, leather, and mould. Mould, of course, is the enemy here, and the cheeses are regularly brushed and turned on the shelves. They are also tested to ensure quality, and any that fail the “knock test” (with a special hammer to detect cracks/hollowness) are scored around the rind – effectively marking the cheese as being 2^nd grade. If it’s too bad, the scoring is particularly tight, crossing out the words entirely. If you see scoring on the rind of your parmesan, don’t buy it.

There's a lot of cheese!

We then went through to taste two cheeses, a 24-month “young” cheese, and a more mature 40-month. We compared the differences in texture, flavour, and saltiness.

Colour is not an indication of age

We returned to Reggio Emilia and Anne took us for a walking tour of the town, pointing out sites of interest. It doesn’t have the churches and architecture of the larger cities we’ve been to, but is more a model of a typical Italian city where the ordinary folk live.  After a light lunch at Macrame, we were left to our own devices for a couple of hours, before rejoining our bus to the Cavazzone farmhouse, there to find out about vinegar.

The big church

The theatre - Pavarotti gave his first performance here