Today was the day for Day Trips from Milan. Bakshis (Praveen & Meenu) and Nasas (Mohit & Naiyya) had booked their day trip to Venice and since we both had already seen Venice (me having been twice!) our plan was to go out to the Italian countryside.
Some photographs from the Trip to Venice – they must have had a wonderful time!
We chose Parma as it was not too far away and was the home of the famous Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Managed to find a suitably timed Cheese factory tour with Uggolotti, which is a small family-owned cheese factory.
We took an early train to Parma and reached the factory well in time as it had easy access by bus from the train Stazione.
The manager, Kiara, conducted a very interesting and informative session, showing us all the steps for making the exclusive Parmigiano Reggiano cheese including the churning, sorting, salting and then the aging/storage rooms.
J has chronicled our absolutely wonderfully fascinating visit to the Caseificio Ugolotti here.
It was followed by the tasting of their 1,2,3-year-old cheese with some local wine and a balsamic vinegar with pear. Then, since we had pre-booked their lunch, we continued on. Authentic Gnocchi and Anolini followed by Panna Cotta and ice cream was our lunch.
The whole experience was totally worth it!
We took the bus back to the Parma city centre, got off at the piazza and explored the area around on foot. The beautiful and unique cathedral has every inch covered with painted frescos and the gilded altars added to the grandeur!
Strolled back to the train station and managed to book ourselves into a wrong train! We had to get off midway and change to a train after a 45 min stop, which eventually dropped us at a faraway Milano station!
Anyway, took the metro and reached the Milan Lampugnano Bus Station just in time to catch up with Raju Mama, Medha Mami and Ojaswini. It was fun meeting them in Milan of all the places!
Back to the Airbnb and we waited for the rest of the gang to come back from Venice with their stories of a wonderful visit.
Overall, a wonderful day for all of us!
