Day 21 Parma/Florence, Italy

Friday.

Woke up this morning to no Internet :( sad day. But breakfast was pretty awesome! Lots of croissants but they also had doughnut holes. After we ate we packed up the bus and headed to parmigiano reggiano.

This warehouse is where all the Parmesan in the world is made! We walked inside the first station where all the cows milk is brought in and curdled...I thought I was going to die. It smelled like old milk left in a room that had no AC. It was pretty neat how they get the cheese out, but the smell was just overpowering all of my learning. Plus, we were also wearing a plastic lab coat that was causing my body to heat up another 10 degrees.

The big basins had all the milk in them and some extra protein....flies. That was gross and made me nervous to try the cheese offered at the end. The aging room was definitely the coolest part. Huge room with rows and rows of cheese. I learned I will not be entering the cheese business any time soon!

We then went to Padua ham and saw how the pigs were slaughter...just kidding. We did see what they do to the legs once they are sent from the slaughter house. It was surprisingly more interesting and less stinky than the cheese. They had close to 150,000 hind legs. And those are just the legs that are ready to be sold. They have to be cured for at least 12 months. They also had a room just for the USA hams because we require more curing time- we are special :)

After that we stopped by a little shopping mall, bought some lunch, saw some pretty interesting toilets, then it was BTTB and off to Florence! (the toilets were holes in the ground and yes I took a picture)

It took us forever to get to the hotel. I think we finally made it around 9...a three hour trip that took six. However we finally made it and guessed what was right under our hotel a Disney store!! Yeah it's awesome and I think it's the 4th one I've seen this trip! Well, Erica and I just got back from our gelato dinner (and we are finally roommates and we are obviously in the more expensive part of town...10 euros for three scoops) and now I'm hoping to Skype my boy! He's finally a graduate from LDAC and he's on his way back to Provo.