ITALY 2022 – PART 2 - Chris and Lene on Tour

On our big trip to Italy we, of course, also visited a little Parmesan dairy. The San Pier Damiani parmesan cheese dairy is just a few kilometres from Parma. It was founded in 1846. Every day, every year, they produce the world-famous Parmigiano Reggiano, the REAL parmesan cheese, just as it has been made for 700 years. This is hard work, and the cheese must be matured for at least 12 months. This time we also tasted a delicious Parmigiano Reggiano made with milk from brown cows. Everybody can come and visit the dairy to see how this ancient cheese type is made. Then we visited the winery Monte Delle Vigne where they make, apart from many other fine wines, a super delicious slightly sweet sparkling wine from the local Malvasia grape, Lene’s absolute favourite wine. We had booked a tour of the winery, to see the facilities, and afterwards, we attended a wine tasting with a light lunch. Monte Delle Vigne started 40 years ago with just a 7-hectare vineyard and is now a modern winery producing great wine. We stayed on the premises of the winery for the night in our motor home. On our tour through the Italian landscape, we noticed the beautiful graveyards, so we had to visit some of them. All so peaceful, well maintained and lovingly decorated. Later we visited a big organic farm, Podere Giardino, breeding cattle and chickens, and growing Lambrusco grapes for the famous sparkling wine of the same name. The Lambruscos made here are very good. The family farm has been run by the friendly Crotti family since the end of the 19^th century. The family is also involved in promoting fine food from the area. It was very interesting to follow the busy work at the farm, where we could also stay for the night in our camper.