2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo

For all food enthusiasts and
wine lovers travelling to Italy no trip would be complete without a
visit to the wonderful Emilia Romagna Region, Which is famous for 3
things; Prosciutto, Pavarotti, and Parmigiano Reggiano. This area
which unfortunately can sometimes be left off many travelers to Italy’s
itineraries , is the region which borders Tuscany to the North and
is home to the major city of Bologna. While most of the Italian
continent is covered with hills and mountains, Emilia Romagna is a
region of fertile plains and booming industries.

Our trip began
in the quaint city of Modena on a Friday, we checked into the Hotel
Real Fini on Via Emilia Est. Having reserved a suspiciously low-priced
rate of 63 Euro per night (in June) on Venere.com, I was not
anticipating much from this four star hotel. Nevertheless I was
pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel was not only clean, stylish
and well located but it also had a great breakfast!

As we only
had a short stay of 2 days in the region, we wanted to get straight
down to seeing the sights. Just a brief car ride from Modena is
Marranello, where Ferrari cars are manufactured. We spent a very
enjoyable hour at the Ferrari museum following the life and work of Enzo
Ferrari through his incredible cars. Needless to say it was not the
tours fault that we felt a slight pang of depression/jealousy/envy as we
made our way into our very adequate Fiat to head to our next
destination in our busy trip to the Emilia Romagna region.

Our
next leg of the journey saw us heading back to Modena, where we decided
to pay homage to another local legend: Luciano Pavarotti. His awe
inspiring villa with its perpetual tree-lined driveway was just what we
anticipated of the home of this billionaire opera singer. While
admittedly a brief thought of trying to trespass to get a better view of
the villa did cross my mind. I decided petty thuggery was not going to
be part of this family vacation and so we didn’t go past the gate. It
was sufficient to just sit there in the sunshine with “Nessun dorma”
playing loudly on the iPod, and envisage what it would be like to live
in the same town as Pavarotti. The people of Modena appear to have
mingled emotions about him recently. Once an unrivaled lyrical genius,
he started to lose face among the Modenese when he separated with his
wife of 36 years to marry Nicoletta Mantovani, 34 years his junior. On
top of this the locals were being charged a small fortune of 300 + euro
to go see one of their own preform in concert. As you can imagine the
Modenese started to feel that maybe Luciano had become a bit too big
for his britches. Now after passing on, it does seem that the fond
memories of Pavarotti are the ones that remain and that he will live on
forever through his marvelous music.

The following day we got up
early and drove over to the neighboring city of Parma. It is no
coincidence that the European Union has selected Parma to be the home
of the European Union Food Safety Authority. This town means business
when it comes to food, so we decided to hire a lovely local guide named
Laura to give us a tour of this food manufacturing region.

Our
tour began at a small factory that produces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
According to the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese consortium, this cheese is
“a true miracle of nature and of the traditions of the people who
produce it. It is for the enjoyment of those who seek in what they eat
not only nourishment, but also incredible flavor, love for the earth,
and respect – a lot of respect – for nature and its mysteries.”
Understandably after just a short time on the tour, my respect for this
800 year old tradition had just quadrupled. We looked on as they poured
the fresh local milk into these great big tubs that are then brought
to carefully controlled temperatures as master cheese makers transform
it into the early stages of Parmigiano Reggiano. It takes almost 1200
liters of milk to produce one perfect wheel of Parmigano cheese that
will weigh in at about 45 kilos. Only 100% natural ingredients are used,
no additives or chemicals whatsoever (now you can understand why so
many Italian mothers recommend it as a starter food for babies as they
begin consuming solids). Our well informed guide then took us through
all the finial stages that the cheese goes through from the various
phases of cooling, to salting, and seasoning that each wheel of cheese
experiences before it can finally be sampled, certified, and stamped
“Parmigiano-Reggiano”.

After a mouth watering tasting session of
the various Parmigiano Reggiano products (aged 12 months, 18 months, or
24+ months), we bid adieu to our hosts and followed our guide on date
with none other than the Prosciutto di Parma.

The manufacturing
plant chosen for our Prosciutto tour is a medium sized factory with
three main products: Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello, and Culatta. We
looked on, trying not to salivate too much as hundreds of legs of
locally raised ham were hauled in, inspected, weighed, massaged,
salted, and stored in various refrigerated chambers for specific
amounts of time at accurately controlled temperatures. Our guide
explained the whole process to us from beginning to end (which
anecdotally happens to be when the master prosciutto sniffer takes a
sharp tool made from the bone of a horse’s leg, stabs the prosciutto in
three places, smells the tool, and gives the product a thumbs up or
thumbs down). Our guide then expertly navigated our way through the
prosciutto cathedral of hanging legs of meats in their various phases
of “stagionatura” that was almost comical. After spending the best part
of the day in the company of all this delicious food finally it was
time for us to sit down and relax over a well deserved lunch.

The
Calicella di Pilastro vineyard and winemakers is set amongst a
beautiful backdrop of the Parma countryside. Our hosts graciously
provided us with a lovely lunch consisting of their own wine (Lambrusco
dell’Emilia sparkling red and Malvasia white) which we sampled along
with trays of Prosciutto di Parma, Coppa, Parmigiano cheese, roasted
peppers,sun dried tomatoes, olives, marinated mushrooms, and warm crusty
bread. The food was so plentifully and delicious that soon we had all
eaten our weight in prosciutto and cheese, to end proceedings in
typical Italian fashion we sipped an espresso and a little grappa to
wash it all down!

A little tired, very full but totally happy and
satisfied with our weekend tour we parted company with out excellent
guide and vowed to come back again!

2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo

2012 ferrari enzo