Aceto Balsamico

On Monday, 16 February, I went with a few of the other wives to Modena, where the best Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar) in the world is made. We went to one of the family-owned, artisan operations to see how it is made. It was a brief, but interesting tour.

The family grow their own grapes on the property and harvest in the fall. They then cook down the juice and begin the long evaporation process. They have many barrels of varying sizes up in the attic of one of the buildings. The barrels are stored on their sides and have square holes cut in them, covered with cloth. The vinegar is poured first into the larger barrels and allowed to evaporate over the course of the year. As it becomes more concentrated, it is poured into smaller barrels until it finally goes into the smallest barrels, which looked to be about 2 gallon size. Our host told us that some of his barrels were at least 200 years old.

All of the vinegar is aged at least 18 years, and the best is 25 years old. We tasted both varieties, and they were both very good, though you could certainly tell that the older one was better. I couldn't afford the oldest one, though. I got a bottle of the not quite so old variety, 100 mL, and it was still 40 Euro.


There are, of course, large companies that manufacture aceto balsamico as well, of varying qualities and prices. The more aged and better quality, the more expensive, but most are still reasonable. My bottle from the tour will be saved for special occasions, but I have found another variety at the grocery store for everyday use. It's about 12 Euro for 250 mL, and is still good quality. Some of the cheap varieties are not very good, and you have to be sure that it says from Modena on the label.

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar is about the only salad dressing available in Italy in restaurants, but as long as the balsamic vinegar is good quality it's quite nice. Balsamic vinegar can also be used to marinate meat and vegetables. Our host for the tour even had jellies and sauces made with it.

Le Mura

Last Friday was beautiful and sunny, and I was inspired to walk up on the wall and take pictures. If you are not aware, Ferrara, the city where we live, is a walled city. The wall was built mostly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Ferrara was the capital of an important duchy for many centuries, beginning in the middle ages. Now, there are walking and biking trails both on top and around the exterior of the wall.

I only covered a very small portion of the wall (I believe the total circumference is something like 9 kilometers), but got some good shots of what it looks like in the area near Emily's school.

This is a view of the wall from the outside, as we approach it from our house.
This is the lane on top of the wall, where you can walk. It is nicely planted with trees on either side. This is a very popular place for joggers.

This is a view down along the wall from the outcropping shown in the first picture above. The road shown on the other side of the large, round building is Corso Porta Mare, the closest road to our house that enters through the wall.

This is a view looking down on the wall from the lane above onto some interesting ruins. Not sure what they used to be, but they looked kinda neat!

This is actually looking from the top of the wall inward, toward town. I believe that this is the Jewish Cemetery.

And of course, here is a local soccer team practicing just on the outside of the wall. The road in the background runs around the outside of the wall. You can pretty much circumnavigate the wall by car along the roads, with the occasional roundabout allowing access inside the wall. I don't believe that there are any actual working gates on any of the entrance roads, though some of the entrances are quite narrow.