This morning, REALLY EARLY, my dad woke me up and said it was time to go on our road trip. It was still very dark when we got in the car and headed out. I didn’t sleep at all on the way because my sister was curled up on the seat hogging all of the extra space.

The road we went on was called the A1 and is the main road between Rome and Milan. We traveled on the windy part, with lots of bridges and tunnels and LOTS and LOTS of big trucks. We were on the part from Florence to Bologna (not the sandwich meat, it’s a city!). My dad had arranged for us to have a early morning tour of a dairy in a town called Modena where they make the real Parmiagianno-Regianno cheese that we all like so much on spaghetti.

We got there at 8:00 am sharp and the cheesemaker and his helper were stirring four different big vats of milk. After mixing it, they used cheesecloth to collect the big hunk of cheese particles into a big ball. Then, after it drained for a few minutes, the cheesemaker got out a HUGE knife and CUT THE CHEESE (not the kind you are thinking of!). I mean that he cut it in half. Then, he lifted each half out of the vat and placed the big ball of cheese into a round mold and put a weight on top to make it flat and push all of the rest of the liquid out of it.

It takes almost a month before the cheese goes into the warehouse to age. Then it can be from 1-3 years before the cheese is ready to be sold and eaten. The best part was when I got to taste the cheese. It was way tastier because it was fresh from right there in the dairy.

After leaving the dairy, we went to visit the town where the Ferrari cars are built. They have a special gallery with Ferrari’s from the time that the company started. My favorite one was the 2004 Formula One. I liked it because it had a very odd shape that looked like a spacecraft. It was bright Ferrari red like all of the Ferrari’s there. I got to drive a Formula One simulator and that was cool. I kept on driving off the track onto the grass and the gravel, but I didn’t crash my car like my sister did!

I had penne pasta with tomato sauce for dinner. After dinner Teresa and Anna and Francesco came to say goodbye. I am going to miss them very, very much. I am also going to miss Giotto, Luna, Artu and Amanda. I am glad we plan to keep in touch with email and maybe they'll come visit us in California someday!