This man was gracious enough to provide us with a tour of
the factory, even if it was a full 2 hour tour on a hot day. Before we started the tour we all had to wear
these ridiculously hideous smocks and hats for sanitary regulations. I gotta
say, I think I was rocking it. Who said Milan is the fashion capital of the
world? Modena has to be a close second.
 |
| Left to Right: Noreen, Lauren, Me, Jimmy, Ashley, & Mary... aka THE group. |
We began the tour by viewing their bottling process and
seeing how the end product gets to the user through a packaging facility. Then
things got a little more interesting. As someone extremely interested in
Italian food and food in general, I really wanted to understand how balsamic is
truly made. All I saw in the next room were
these huge towers of balsamic, sitting there for months, aging. The smell of
the acidic vinegar was overwhelming, yet intoxicating.
The next room was my
favorite, a room filled with hundreds of barrels of balsamic aging for years. I
took the liberty in popping one of the corks on the barrel to get a nice long
whiff of this balsamic that has been aging since 1988. Once I put my face over
it I felt a huge wave of balsamic air rushing towards my face, like that air
inside hasn’t seen daylight in 20+ years.
Mr. Bellei brought us to this one part of that room where he
told us about these unorthodox barrels sitting in the top corner. The wood on
these barrels turned black because the balsamic has been sitting in there since
God knows how long. They were dowries for every man in the balsamic family.
Once a new member joined the family, they would make a barrel just for them,
and then it would just sit there till the end of time. It was one of the family
traditions that kept their family alive. It was something you wouldn’t see at
some cliché bottling company. 
Once we were down
with the tour, Mr. Bellei took us over to his office so we could have a little
tasting of his 15 year old balsamic. This man kept amazing me with his youth;
there he was pouring all 26 of us a small cup of his balsamic. Once we tried
it, I fell in love with it. It was acidic, thick, and had a lot more taste than
your average balsamic purchase in a supermarket. Once it ages it reduces down
to a thicker consistency and those added years really make all the difference.
Once I thought my heart couldn’t be filled with more balsamic love, Mr. Bellei
surprised me with one last golden egg.
After we finished the tasting he put this picture of this woman
on top of the table and we all began to wonder who she was. But once he put it
down, he quickly left the room, upset. All of us fell silent and confused. The
English speaking tour guide told us that that woman was his wife that passed
away not too long ago and he always gets upset when he sees her picture. Once
he returned into the room he told us that she was, “The light to his world.”
(in Italian). My heart sank, sank in a barrel of balsamic and into this man’s huge
heart. That’s love. Just by looking into his eyes you could tell how much pain
he has endured since she left his world. We began to finally react after
holding our tears back by telling him how grateful and inspired we were that we
had the pleasure of meeting this Renaissance man. Then he said this…
Senza i figli e non
niente.”
“Without children, there’s nothing.”
“Without children, there’s nothing.”
THIS MAN. Like wow! Can he get any more perfect? UGH. From
what the English speaking tour guide explained, he was telling us that without
sharing his passion with his children, life isn’t worth living. This man
represents such a beautifully strong generation that I hope is never forgotten.
After thanking him for his generosity and his little gift of balsamic he gave
all of us, I quickly wanted to run back on the bus to find a tissue in my
backpack. He hit me deep, and I wasn’t ashamed of it. You don’t meet people
like that every day, and when you do it’s something that should be deeply
cherished.
Grazie mille Mr.
Bellei,
Dom
