Say Cheese!

I'm using an Italian keyboard, so bare with me. Things are in diferent places: this may also effect my spelling!

March 16, 2010
I pushed , pulled, dragged, rolled, and finally tossed myself out of bed this morning. East bound jet lag has never hit me so hard. If I didn't have a commitment, I would have slept longer. And YES, I understand what a sacrelige it is to say that when I'm in Italy. THAT'S how tired I was.

My appointment was for a tour at a local cheese factory. Caseificio Michelangelo is a family run mozzorella and provelone factory started my my guide's grandmother in the 1930's. Sara, who gave the tour offered me red wine while we waited for a family of four from Dallas to show up. Sara's husband, Cristian, picked me up from the square in Sorrento for the short drive to Piano Sorrento and the cheese factory. As I enjoyed my wine, I weighed the appropriateness of not only drinking at 10:30 am, but also the fact that in the past 24 hours I consumed all of two cappuccinos and one pastry. Surprisingly, because I'm usually a lite-weight with my alcohol, the vino pepped me up in time to don my plastic dress and paper hat and booties needed to enter the factory. There we met Sara's father, several uncles and a cousin, all hard at work. They were all very gracious, said hello, smiled and just stepped around us.

We got to make our own fresh mozzorella cheese braid with the help of Sara's dad. Then we went to the tasting room to enjoy more wine and seven cheeses - all pretty much varieties of the same processed or aging. The ricotta was the best I've ever had and their provolone was like nothing you've ever tasted - a bit spicey and maybe nutty.

More to come...