Our last day in Bologna we visited two amazing sites: the Sanctuary of Santa Luca, which was perched on a hill overlooking Bologna and then we went to the Anatomical Theater, a sixteenth century medical school and the site of one of the oldest universities in the world. First the Sanctuary of Santa Luca. To…
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Day 13: Vinegar and Pizza UPDATE
Update: in my description of Balsamic Vinegar IGP below… Tuesday 20 July is suppose to be the first full day in Bologna. So what do we do? We drive to Modena. In Modena we have an appointment for the tour of a Acetaia Di Giorgio, which I assume is a Balsamic Vinegar factory. I also…
First impressions of Bologna
One small detail I left out of the cheese tour is this picture. Every wheel before it goes on sale, is tested by the cheesemaker with a mallet to make sure the wheel sounds good and there are no air pockets found. The air pockets do not effect the taste; however, the cheese can no…
Day 12: CASEIFICIO UGOLOTTI (The Cheese Factory)
We left this morning (Monday 19), a day earlier to spend an extra day in Bologna. On the way out of the city I had arranged a tour of a cheese factory where Parmigiano is made. It was an amazing experience. Minne was able to take some great films of the process as well. The…
Day 11 Post Script: a great last walk through Parma
Late in the afternoon, Minne and I went alone on a last walk in Parma. This was a much nicer tour and I saw a lot to really love about Parma. We saw more medieval and renaissance parts of Parma as well as more interesting streets. We also stopped into the Cathedral of the city.…
Day 11: Parma and family drama
Not much to write about the last two days. There was too much family drama. Which is resolving itself by Sarah taking a plane back to Amsterdam on Tuesday. Parma started with so much hope, including a rainbow greeting last night: You’ll see little record of yesterday evening’s terrific tasting dinner and a waiter’s valiant…
Day 10: Genoa to Parma
In the last day at Genoa, I took Minne and the girls to see the sights they missed: The Chiesa del Jesu with the Ruebens, the duomo and a few other sites. And then it was off to city number 4: Parma, which was at one time considered the lead city to move to but…
Day 9: Santa Margherita and Portofino
Sarah suggested we go to Portofino, and first insisted we watch the movie Luca. She wanted to go to Portofino to see where the (animated) film was located. So we decided to get out in the country and explore the Italian Riviera. But First Esther wanted a little photo shoot from the balcony of the…
Day 8: showing the girls Genoa (updated pix added)
Today I was showing the girls around Genoa. It is so beautiful they were duly impressed. Sarah passed a bag store and wanted this beautiful bag, it cost 200 euros. (I was actually relieved when she said a designer bag I was braced for 1,000s–not that she would have gotten it). So I was going…
Day 7: the dinner
Day 7 evening: the family arrived My daughters arrived with Minne at 8:00. I had a huge feast of the different types of focaccia bread, vegetable tarts, etc. that I had bought at the market. It was feast everyone enjoyed! Especially because everyone was so tired from their journey. I though I had too much…