Ciao Reader,

I'm soaking up every last minute of my month in Italy! It's been a wild ride up and down the entire country.

​From all the way South in Calabria (with sunny beaches and so many peperoncino peppers) to way up North in Venice (visiting the colorful houses of Burano with my husband).

Each of Italy's 20 regions has its own unique charm, feel, and food traditions, which is why seeing all the different parts is so fun!

I've been saving all my adventures on a couple of Instagram highlights if you want to check them out. 

There's so much to share about my month in Italy, but today I have to tell you about my experience visiting a Parmigiano Reggiano facility.

Italy is all about quality over quantity, which is really evident when you see their processes for food production.

The place we visited makes 4–6 wheels of cheese a day, depending on how much milk the cows produce the day before.

Because of that small number, I was honestly expecting something tiny and low-key. With this small quantity, I wasn’t expecting to see a huge wall of cheese when we went into the aging room.

But wow, was I wrong. Over a year (since Parmigiano Reggiano has to age for at least 12 months), the amount of cheese really adds up!

The dedication to craft and learning the art of cheese-making is insane! The same two people make cheese 7 days a week. That’s hard work that really never stops.

And it’s not just the physical work either. Since Parmigiano Reggiano is certified DOP (which is Italian for Protected Designation of Origin), there are expensive records that have to be kept for the consortium to show the product was made in the protected geographical area and with the proper care and procedures.

I’m really fascinated by the process of how our food comes to be!

And honestly, it made me reflect. I personally feel like most of us in the United States are very disconnected from where our food comes from. Unlike in culinary school, where I was picking slugs off of our organically grown leafy greens, in the U.S., I’m typically grabbing things off the grocery store shelf without a second thought of where they came from.

That’s one thing Italy keeps teaching me. It has a way of making me slow down and think about things more, including where my food comes from.

We got to watch the cheese be made from start to finish.

First things first, fresh milk from local cows is heated and mixed with rennet to form curds. These curds are then cut, drained, and pressed into molds.

And let me tell you, it’s no small task. You can see this is a lot of cheese! Each stand makes two 50-kilo rounds of cheese, so this is a lot of manual work for the producers who are lifting and moving the cheese all day.

Next, the cheese is moved into a mold where it sits and is tightened slightly every day. The wheels of cheese are then soaked in salt water and then transferred to the aging room, where they rest for at least a year.

The coolest part was comparing the wheels side by side. You can see the difference between newly made cheese (which is very pale, almost white looking) vs. the full-aged cheese (with a dark color).

We even learned that each wheel of cheese has a unique tracking code that allows you to see where the final wheel ends up.

If you're ever in the region of Emilia-Romagna, you should definitely consider visiting a Parmigiano Reggiano producer. Davide (from Bike Food Stories) was an amazing guide on this tour! We rented ebikes from him and explored not only the Parmigiano Reggiano factory, but also the beautiful countryside of Parma and a local vineyard/restaurant.

We booked this tour last minute on our trip while staying in Bologna, and it turned out to be one of my favorite experiences!

I have so much more to tell you about my month in Italy! And, most excitingly, I'm planning new dates for my next trip to Calabria in 2027.

If you've traveled to Italy before, I'd love to hear about your favorite experience! My Italy bucket list keeps on growing the more and more I hear about other people's experiences.

I'd love to hear about yours, if you're willing to share :)

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