It Helps to Have Friends in High Places

Feeling groggy and bloated after waking up at noon has become common place; after all I have been drinking amazing beer, and eating cheese from three straight days. Throughout these four days I would say I have tried over 50 types of cheeses, mostly from Italy, and about 50 different types of beer, also mostly from Italy. I have also of course had a few glasses of wine along the way.

This festival has given me the chance to experience many artisanal beers, cheeses, wines, balsamic vinegars, and honeys, that I don’t think I will ever get to taste again unless I find myself back here, which is a strong possibility at this point. Everyday has truly been a unique experience.

A few highlights of the festival have been the wine tent, beer tent, and cheese market. Paulo, who also works at the schools wine bank, was working at the wine tent and taught us about six different wines all from the Piedmont region we are living in. We tasted four Barbarescos, and two Barolos. The Brabarescos are lighter in color and taste, the Borolo is a much stronger tasting wine. All these wine are produced within an hour of Bra.

Now onto the beer, and wow, was there a lot of it. To start, I want to say thanks the students working the beer tent for hooking us up every day! I probably paid four euro for the 50 half glasses of beer, all of which were amazing. Some of my favorites were the Winterlude which is a triple and New Morning which is a saison, both made by the same producer. The Black Lizard a super dark, nearly black porter was amazing; it had a strong coffee taste and was very heavy. Re Ale which is American pale ale and was phenomenal, I must have had three glass of that alone. Novi Luna which is another saison and had hints of flowers. It was very light and refreshing. Those round out my top five for the beer, and they were phenomenal.

The beer may have seemed like the main event, and for most people it probably was, but the cheese took the show. I have tried the best of nearly every single kind of cheese there is. Every conception I have of what good cheese is is gone. It is hard to describe what I have tasted, but it has ranged from the creamiest mozzarella, to the sharpest parmigiano reggiano, and the most flavorful blue cheese.

Not to mention the balsamic vinegar. I have tried balsamic vinegar aged for longer than two of my lives; so thick that it took a few seconds before it even began to pour out of the bottle. It also costs about 150euro, around 200 USD for probably a cup and a half. The best part, one of our Italian classmates’, Marco, works there and is going to takes us on a tour. He also said he would get us the balsamic for half price, score! I can’t forget the many types of honey, some made from famous Piemonte hazelnuts, some from pistachios, some from white mustard plus many more.

Now that cheese has come to a close, it’s time to wind down the partying as I get ready to start Italian class on Monday.