il secondo

Quickie day trip that really happened to be one of the better ones. Erik's dad's birthdat was today and apparently he really loves balsamic vinegar. For his dad, Erick decided to visit La Ca' dal Non (the house of grandparents?) an acataia (vinegar maker place) near Bologna. It really was a great idea. From now on, when someone I love has a birthday, I will also just go someplace cool "for them". Anyways, we went to this place that we found at the end of a dinky road, home to only grape vines, cows, chickens, and old stone homes. At the door we were met by this really dapper man (compared to our tennis shoes and hoodies). He welcomed us in and sat us down, beginning the explanation of how balsamic vinegar is created. After, we progressed into the acataia itself. This man certainly had has priorities set. While we were not asked to remove our shoes into his house, we could not take a step into the acataia without putting un surgical booties. Booties in place, we continued. The building was profumed by the decades-old wooden barrels and their savory contents. We could easily see the whole process right before our eyes (mind you, the process takes 12 or 25 years, so don't wait up). The barrels were in order from largest to smallest, as a progression for their evaporating contents. The smaller the barrel, the older and more pungent the vinegar. Try putting your nose to one of these barrels, I think it cleared out my cold with one sniff. But anyway, the place was beautiful. This man was the grandson of the man who started the whole place and their were pictures of him with his grandparents when he was only one year old, at the same door that we were standing at now. So many of the tools were exactly the same ones as the originals. The barrels, scrapers, stoppers, testers, whatchamacallits and others. It was really beautiful and certainly interesting. Not the least of which was the clear joy this man had in displaying his life's work. Let it be known, that I was also very pleased to be able to partake, especially in the tasting. With only a few drops on a plastic spoon, the flavors from the vinegar shocked my tongue and got my mouth to water like a faucet. The sweetness of the wood was rich the texture smooth. It was all very complex, especially to my tastebuds accustumed to Schnuck's brand products.

So content with that tour, the day could have ended there and I would have been happy, but we cooled our heals at a restaurant that may have appreciated pork fat more than McDonalds before they switched to vegetable oil. In the name of travel and cuisine, we opted to forget our arteries and our wallets (not always so willingly) for a really good and really rich lunch. Afterwards, we traveled to the nearby city of Modena to walk off our food coma if for nothing else. The new town and clear sky was entirely welcoming and ultimately very beautiful. After a pass through, we called it quits. Follow that with a game of Guess Who with the family, and that is a good weekend.