Liquid Gold and Homemade Pasta

Monday, July 23


Rachel's deep, deep love for balsamic vinegar inspired today's adventure in Modena: a tour of a real Acetaia where traditional balsamic vinegar is made.  Our drive from Cinque Terre back to Treviso (still with the Prices who were coming to spend a few days in the Venice area) took us straight through the food center of Italy - Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Bologna.  I had contacted a private acetaia a few weeks ago and the couple, Giorgio and Giovanna, were happy to invite us into their home to show us how real balsamic vinegar is made.  Finding the home proved more difficult - as an industrial area has grown up around this large manor house that has been the home of vinegar makers and their barrels for hundreds of years.  But after a man on the street placed a phone call for us, we found the right place only a few minutes late.

Giovanna was a welcoming host and was clearly very proud of her product and the deep-rooted family tradition from which it is created.  Practically all bottles of balsamic vinegar say that they are "di Modena" - but that name is not protected and anyone can (and they do) put it on their bottles.  To be real balsamic vinegar (Traditional Balsamic Vinegar DOP) you must be only from grapes grown in certified vineyards in Modena.  The grapes are then crushed and the juice ("must") is boiled reducing it by 50%.  The liquid is placed in a series of barrels made of different types of wood (juniper, cherry, oak, ash) and continues to concentrate in the attic of their home  for either at least 12 years (or at least 25 years for the "extra old") at which point it must undergo rigorous blind tastings before bottling.  Only then, can it be put in a uniquely shaped bottle and sold as the real deal.  (She cautions against being fooled by other expensive looking bottles - if it isn't in this particular bottle, it is not real. Her advice: if buying industrial, buy cheap.  Also, there is no such thing as white balsamic vinegar!)  Making authentic vinegar is a tradition passed through families and requires patience.   What begins as 150 liters of grape must will yield not even three liters 12 years later. When Giorgio and Giovanna had a daughter Carlotta 26 years ago, as is the tradition of balsamic vinegar makers, they began her dowry - a series of barrels - that has been aging along with Carlotta until it was finally ready for bottling last year.  

After explaining the process to us and letting us smell the different barrels in one series, it was time for the tasting!  Though they make 8 different products, we only tried four or five.  Giovanna poured droplets of the thick black syrup into teaspoons and told us what wood each vinegar we tried came from.  We started with the 12 year old vinegars and before moving to the extra vecchio she had us cleanse our palates with some pieces of bread and wonderful chunks of parmesano regiano - from the nearby sister city of Reggio Emilia.  We ended up buying a bottle each of the Extravecchio gold cap – aged over 25 years, deep brown color, perfect for meats, salads, desserts, or even just as a digestive after a meal.  When we allow ourselves a drop or two of our “liquid gold” – after seeing the process, you understand that it can’t come cheap – I will be reminded of Giorgio and Giovanna and their painstaking attention to detail that created it.

Though this was supposed to be our day focused on food, we only had time to grab a really quick sandwich at a nearby bar before heading to our next stop, Bologna.  Jim scheduled a work meeting for 6 pm that evening so he needed to drop us in the center of Bologna and meet up with us 3 hours later.  For the second time that day (first in Modena) we drove straight into the walled city not understanding that traffic is limited and entering the city is forbidden unless you have the right permit and that we will most certainly be receiving tickets for those infractions when they track us down at home.  (As everything is done by pictures, we could be facing a lot of fines).  Jim got us a good restaurant recommendation from co-workers and I was able to get us an 8:00 pm reservation.

Since Rick Steves totally ignores Bologna in his tour book, we were on our own to fill the time.  Our first stop was the tourist information office on the Plaza Maggiore...well, the gelato shop right next to tourist information came first....and Cora was not happy when her scoop of chocolate gelato hit the ground! (Gretchen, send me that picture!).  At the TI, we picked up a map with a suggested route to follow and off we set through the porticos that Bologna is known for.  Every street is lined with arch covered sidewalks that are the widest of any Italian city.  I just came across this history of the porticos - if you are interested...

The Bolognese had begun to find themselves to be rather well off, and at the same time finding the population of their city to be rapidly rising. Bologna's world famous university, Europe's first, had attracted thousands of immigrants. Thus, in order to create more living space, the people began building extensions to their buildings. With not much room inside the walled city with which to build, these extensions were built out over the sidewalks. And so, porticos were born. The first officially documented portico dates to 1211. Before long (in 1289), they became a mandated feature of the city: if you built a new building, it had to incorporate a portico.

Our stroll took us by the original University building (the oldest university in the western hemisphere), to a church that is really seven churches altogether, inside another church with a statue by a young Michelangelo (though we didn't know which one was his), the two towers (le due torri), and underneath a passageway where there was a very small symmetrical room with a cool acoustic effect: if you put your ear in one of the corners and someone else whispers into the other the sound travles up the arch and down into your corner.  We all enjoyed standing face to the walls and seeing if we could hear each other...we must have looked a little odd. Perhaps the biggest highlight of Bologna was the Neptune statue, with water that shoots out of the breasts of mermaids.  (Please note that if I had suggested this photo, it would have been far too embarrassing to do - so we know that it wasn't my idea!)  

It was time to meet Jim at La Traviata for dinner, recommended for the homemade pasta made fresh daily.  Spaghetti Bolognese is one of my favorite foods and I was so looking forward to ordering the pasta al ragu in the place of its origin.  We were waited on by the pasta maker herself, and she was very particular about what and when we ordered.  She would only take our pasta order to start and would not allow us to order some second courses at the same time. We ordered 7 pasta dishes to pass around the table, and the pasta was fantastic...so fresh and thin and delicious.  The pumpkin ravioli and lasagna were stand outs and when we got her attention again, we ordered a second round of pasta (throwing us off the proper order by not ordering a second course).   The restaurant was very busy that night and the servers in no hurry to get us on our way - the service was even slower than we have become accustomed to.  At 10:30 we decided we really needed to get on the road...with two more hours to drive to Treviso and Jeff and Michelle needing to check into a hotel...and left with just having had the pastas.  That was fine with me...the pasta was great, but to be perfectly honest the ragu in Bologna was not better than the pappardelle bolognese here in Treviso - lucky for me that is much closer to home!

Cinque Terra = Cinque Gelati?

Sunday was our day to explore the five cities of Cinque Terre National Park.   For our purposes, we numbered them in this order: 1) Riomaggiore, 2) Manarola, 3) Corniglia, 4) Vernazza, 5) Monterosso al Mare.  The towns are connected by a path called the Sentiero Azzurro - the light blue path.   After the terrible rains and mudslides in October last year closed the trail, it has now been reopened except for the portion between Manarola and Corniglia.   The towns are also connected by trains that run regularly throughout the day.  A Cinque Terre pass gets you unlimited travel by train or trail for the time specified.  We decided to start our adventure on foot.  

After waking and having breakfast in Manorola, we took the easy walk back to the first town, Riomaggiore. At just one kilometer, the path between Riomaggiore and Manarola is the shortest, flattest, and easiest of them all, and the first one to be made connecting any of the cities.  These towns were so isolated that people rarely married anyone from outside their town.  After the path was constructed (first made in 1920s but not consistently operational until after WW II), the possibility of mingling between towns doubled the mating options and the trail was named the Via Dell'Amore ("Love Walk").  Along the path, in addition to stunning views of the ocean, there is still a lot of graffiti left by courting couples, as well as padlocks closed on railings and cables by youngsters in love.  

Examing the locks of love

Riomaggiore

We followed Rick Steve's guided walking tours through Riomaggiore, stopping in the Church of St. Anthony.  I am not sure though if Julia's t-shirt ("I Stand With Planned Parenthood") was a bigger "dress code violation" than her tank top in Milan!   


Though the stroll to Riomaggiore was only about 20 minutes and we had just had breakfast, The Price Family felt it was time to get some gelato...while we all know how much I love all things ice cream, when they were eating their first gelato of the day before noon, I knew I couldn't even really compete. The Prices have long had a policy of getting ice cream every day while traveling - a tradition that we borrowed from them and made our own.  But, I believe it was Gretchen who decided to up the ante in Cinque Terre with the idea of eating a gelato in each of the five towns in one day.  I knew I was out after I didn't have any in town #1 opting for a fresh peach instead, but I challenged the others (dared them really) and they were more than willing to accept the challenge.


Skipping town #2 (where we started the morning), we went on to town #3.  Because the path between Manarola and  Corniglia  is closed, the train was our only option to get to  Corniglia.  Waiting on the tracks for the train to come was an adventure in itself.  Some trains stop at each town, while others are through trains that just whiz right by at full speed.  These are very small towns with platforms that aren't as long as the trains so you are allowed to walk into the tunnels and wait for trains there.  You are able to get very, very close to the trains that come whizzing through since you are standing on a 3 foot wide platform inside a tunnel - added to my list of "Things that would never happen in litigiuos America" right after the lack of warning signs in the Florence Duomo.   The first time it happened, 5-year-old Cora was very surprised (and a little scared), but the "through trains" became something that Cora would look forward to.  

Corniglia is the only of the cities that is not next to the water, but rather up on the hill top.  So, while we took the train to Corniglia, actually getting to the town required a hike straight up from the train station.  We skipped the 33 flights of steps (over 400 stairs) and followed the road instead.  Again we walked through the center of town following Rick Steve's advice to the gelato shop with honey gelato and  got ice cream #2.  At dinner the night before we had had a fabulous pesto lasagna and learned that pesto is actually from this region, Liguria, of Italy.  In Corniglia, we picked up some pesto foccacia to sustain us until lunch in the next town (which would include pesto pizza).    

Pesto Foccacia

Ice Cream #2 - and up for the Challenge

View of Corniglia from the path to Vernanzza

The hike between Corniglia and Vernazza is only 3 km but takes 1.5 hours due to the steep and rocky terrain.  After loading up on foccacia and gelato, we set out to make it to Vernazza for lunch.  Gretchen decided to take off her shirt to hike in her jog bra (it was hot and we were sweaty).  Even with nothing on underneath, Cora decided to take off her shirt too (it is great to be 5!).  We seemed to go up for a very long time before heading back down (steeply).  Credit goes to Cora for making it through the whole way (and to Gretchen for carrying Cora on her back for some of it) -sometimes the steps down were so big Cora had to sit down and scoot.  The hike was lots of fun though and provided amazing views of Corniglia as we were leaving and of Vernazza as we were coming in.  

Corniglia

Vernazza

Daddies and daughters

Vernazza is beautiful, referred to as the "cover girl" of the group.  After checking the train schedule, we made our way down to the harbor and ordered some snacks for lunch (no time to sit down for a big lunch if we wanted to swim in town #5).  Much of the group got fried calamari and vegetables, but Rachel, Michelle, I ordered a pesto and a margharita pizza and met the others sitting on the harbor wall overlooking a little beach and watched some boats and people in the water.  Jeff sketched a nice picture of our lovely view of the clock tower.  On the way back up to the train station, we stopped off for gelato #3.  Rachel's fell off her cone but she managed to catch it in her hand before it hit the ground!  

The walk between Vernazza and  Monterosso al Mare  is supposed to be the hardest and the least scenically rewarding, so we decided to take a train to the final town.  It is clear when you get to Monterosso that this town isn't quite like the other four - much more crowded and loud and there are cars which detract from the village feel. In fact, I read that at one point it had been kicked out of the group.   It has the only extensive sand beach in Cinque Terre and is really overrun with tourists.  Apparently there is an old part of town as well separated from the new town by a tunnel, but we didn't make it there...we joined the hoards of others and headed to the beach. 


We changed into our bathing suits, found a bit of rock (the sandy part is mostly private and you have to pay to sit there) on the public area of the beach and immediately jumped into the water.  It was salty (easy to float).  After about 30 minutes, the girls decided that rather than stay in this crowded area they wanted to go back to our quiet little town and swim there (note, there is no beach in  Manarola  - just some rocks for sunbathers to lay on).  To give ourselves time to do that before dinner, we had to race to get onto the next train heading back and didn't have time to stop for gelato!  The challenge was thwarted - no ice cream in Monterroso!  No Cinque Gelati!

We got to Manarola and went down to the rocky shore.  Annie followed by Gretchen were the first two in the water - swimming over and around rocks in a mostly protected area, but not one that is particularly safe for swimmers. I had just finished commenting to Jim on what a daredevil Annie is when she came out of the water with multiple cuts along the bottom of her foot from the sharp rocks.  In the end, Julia, Annie, and Cora all cut the bottom of their feet trying to navigate through those waters.  Michelle swam near  the girls and tended to cut feet while Jeff calmly sat and sketched, capturing the beauty beautifully.

Jeff sketching

what he was looking at

Then back to the rooms for showers before going to dinner at the recommended Trattoria dal Billy, the fancy restaurant in town way up on the top of the hill. We weren't sure how much to order, but got lots of interesting fish appetizers, pastas, and a second course of  sea bass that they brought to our table to show us before cleaning or cooking it.  Since the ice cream challenge had ended and the gelato shops in town were likely closed so late on a Sunday evening, we decided to have formal dessert at the restaurant - panne cotta, white chocolate cake, dark chocolate cake, lemon semifreddo, and mixed berry semifreddo.  A sweet end to a perfect day - looking forward to a full night's sleep, which we got ....until the bells started ringing at 7:00 am bringing the quiet, sleepy town back to life.

The Prices in Pisa

The curvy mountain drive from Milan to Pisa took a little longer than we planned so we got to the Price Family meeting spot at the Leaning Tower of Pisa about 20 minutes late...and we weren't the only people there!   Eventually we found them all: Jeff, Michelle, Gretchen (15), Annie (12), and Cora (5).  They had already spent a week in southern Italy, and we were so excited to join up with them for the second part of their trip. 

I had never been to the Leaning Tower and though it is an image I've seen hundreds of times, I was really surprised by how much it actually leans.  The top of the tower is over 17 feet off center, and one half of it is really sunk into the ground from the base.  I pictured it more just leaning from the top, but it actually started leaning while they were still building it - when they had just reached the third story.  It is fascinating to me that they continued to build it and that it still stands today.  We considered climbing up to the top of the tower, but the next available tickets were for two hours later (not too sad about that since just looking at it too long brought on my vertigo).  As our real destination for the day was Cinque Terre - Pisa was just a stopping/meeting place - so we decided not to wait to climb up but just to join the rest of the tourists taking pictures of ourselves and the tower with tricks of perspective: holding it up, pushing it over, stepping on it, jumping over it, leaning on it - anything Jim and Michelle could think of to do.  

We then drove on to La Spezia to leave our cars and go by train into Cinque Terre - a rugged stretch of coastline named after five medieval towns perched on the edge of cliffs overlooking the sea.  Though a hot spot for tourists, the towns have remained relatively unchanged and the complicated system of steeply terraced gardens and fields have been shaped over the course of 2000 years.  We chose to stay in Manarola, the second one in, and the one that claims to be the oldest and quietest of the five.   After a morning in Milan and an afternoon in Pisa, we were ready to get back to cute, quaint, and quiet!  

We arrived in Manarola and found our hotel - near the top of the very steep main (well...only) street in town.  The four older girls, Jim, and I are in two rooms of a hotel and Jeff, Michelle, and Cora are in a separate apartment down the hill closer to the center of town.  (We are talking about only 200 meters separating us but we are on opposite sides of town.)  We went in search of dinner and decided on one of the five restaurants in town near the center of town and the plaza that was added a few years ago so that kids could kick a soccer ball around (which our girls were happy to do as well).   We found out it also serves as the town's dance floor.  After dinner, the town came alive with a DJ playing music, flashing lights, shooting fire, and blowing snow bubbles.  The quiet we were anticipating was not to be - but the girls had fun on the dance floor for a little while after we sampled the local gelato (and found it to be quite good) and walked out along the path leading towards the next town to take a look back at the town nestled in the cliffs.  We went back to our separate accommodations to go to sleep, but poor Jeff and Michelle, whose apartment is directly over the central plaza, were kept up until after 1:00 am by the rocking dance party!!  Not at all as advertised in Manarola, Cinque Terre.  

The view from Jeff and Michelle's apartment in Manorola

Bonus Destination: Milano!

There is really nothing exciting that can be said about Thursday - our only accomplishment of the day (other than reading and playing games) was packing up our third floor apartment to move back down to our first floor apartment.  The move is scheduled for Saturday, but we will be with my brother and family in Cinque Terre, so had to pack up early. The Prices had their 2 week trip (to visit us) totally planned before we were 100% sure we would even be able to work out spending the summer here...so when Jeff told me to meet him on Friday at 3:00 at the leaning tower in Pisa, I planned accordingly.   Turns out he meant Saturday! When we discovered the mistake late Thursday night we suddenly had 24 unplanned hours in front of us - our apartment all packed up, Jim already having taken the day off work - so after some quick internet research we were able to add in a trip to Milan, and more importantly to find last-minute tickets to see the Last Supper.  

Prior to this change of events, Rachel had been disappointed that we weren't able to get tickets to see the Last Supper, and that - though only three hours away - we just couldn't fit Milan into our summer schedule.  When I tried to downplay skipping it, she challenged us to name a more famous painting in the world - which we tried but found hard to do.  So we googled. Most top 10 lists of famous paintings have the Last Supper in the top three, only topped by the Mona Lisa (which we saw last year) and Van Gogh's Starry Night...I see another trip to NYC in our future!  


So, off to Milan we went.  On the way we stopped for lunch in the small, medieval town of Soave - a town whose castle we've seen from the major A4 highway many times on trips west but not stopped at.  The major attraction of Soave - besides the castle and the cute winding streets, was a vending machine that not only sells milk, but actually fills your empty bottle with ice cold milk.  We stopped by the machine on the way into town and again on the way out of town...a little piece of heaven.


After all of the cute, quaint, and quiet we have been experiencing, I wasn't really prepared to enter the hustle and bustle of Milan.  Suddenly we were in a really big city - unlike any other we've experienced on this trip so far.  We found our way to our hotel and set off to the Duomo.  We tried to go by metro to get there before it closed, but we got into the metro station and were sent away because there was suddenly a strike and it was closing down.  We walked the 30 minutes to the Duomo instead but did not arrive in time to go inside, but the option to go walk on the rooftop terrace was still open.  We decided to split up - two of us went up to the roof, while the other two decided to clothes shop...after all, it was Milan.  Jim and Rachel thoroughly enjoyed walking on the actual roof of the Duomo and getting up close to the many spires, statues, and other architectural features.

When we met back up (without any new clothes) we went in search of dinner and I'm embarrassed to say that while looking at the various Italian options we turned a corner and  big sign for "Mama Burger" caught our eye.  We convinced ourselves it wasn't overly American of us to have a burger at an entirely Italian burger restaurant, and in fact it was sort of our duty to check out how they have interpreted our national food - we'd be doing them a favor.  I have to say my miniburger (with CHEDDAR cheese), fries, water, and ice cream combo really hit the spot...much more than the veggie burger both girls ordered that was really nothing more than a bunch of cooked spinanch formed into a patty.   The fries were good though.  We went back to the hotel and played our new favorite card game - Clue Suspect - before going to bed.  


After breakfast the next morning we met our tour guide to see the Last Supper.  I had last seen it before the renovation started in 1977 and it was a totally different experience with the 20-year renovation complete.  Going in with a guide to explain what you are seeing and to give history of the time period, of Leoa.rdo and his process, and of the painting itself was really enriching and fascinating to see.  Afterwards, the tour guide took us into the adjoining church which again was more interesting to see with someone telling you what to look at.  As soon as we entered the building one of the monks came up and gave the women in the group with bare shoulders green shawls to cover up with - at least a better solution than what they make you wear for a dress code violation in middle school. 

Now, 24 hours later, it was finally time to go off to meet the Prices in Pisa...