Italy, 3rd August 2024 (TDI): Italian Gymnast Giorgia Villa has quickly gained greater fame for her Italian cheese addiction than her skills on the mat. She competed for Italy and helped the team win a silver medal in women’s gymnastics—Italy’s first medal in an athletic competition in 96 years.
The Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Consortium of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, provided sponsorship for the 21-year-old from Lombardy in northern Italy in 2021.
After Villa’s Olympic success, images from the celebration of the partnership have resurfaced and become viral.
The gymnast can be seen performing splits over a row of the enormous cheese wheels while perched on a mound of them while wearing her leotard.
Alongside the cheeses, she was also seen cartwheeling, handstands, and lounging next to a big chunk of parmesan that had been hewn off the reel, leaving tempting flakes behind. She is shown in one picture holding Italian cheese wheel up to her chest. She is stuffing pieces of the crystal-filled cheese into her mouth in others because she is unable to resist them any longer.
Though none of the other pictures have captured the public’s attention as much as the ones featuring her working so skillfully on the bars, they do show her creating some exceptionally amazing work.
The pictures have drawn attention to Emilia-Romagna, a region in Italy known for its delectable food, which includes prosciutto ham, filled tortellini, tagliatelle al ragù, and cold cuts like mortadella and culatello.
Most famously, Parmigiano-Reggiano, or parmesan cheese, comes from the hills surrounding Parma, which is located about 65 miles northwest of Bologna. For it to be considered authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano, it has to be made in the regions of Mantova, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, and Parma.
One of the enormous wheels Villa is posing on for her photos is made from 550 liters of milk, and cows are fed exacting diets. It’s not as though the wheels are made right away; instead, they need to mature for at least a year, while some pricey cheeses may require up to four years.
An inspector uses a certain type of hammer to pound each wheel every twelve months to monitor the wheel’s aging process. Every wheel is authentically branded as a genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel, with its unique identity number imprinted on it to deter counterfeits and identify the plant where it was manufactured.
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Would you like to give it a go in its native country? The most obvious destination for foodies in Emilia-Romagna is Bologna. This market has existed here in the streets next to the Basilica of San Petronio since the middle Ages, and dozens of merchants now provide an astonishing variety of cheeses.
Lower number of visits Still, parmesan cheese is essentially from Parma. Many delicatessens in the city center allow you to sample different aged cheeses before making a purchase. Giant plates of Italian cheese and cold cuts known as taglieri are also sold at taverns and restaurants all across the city.
In the hills, you can also visit farmers or companies that make parmesan. Not too far from Parma, in Soragna, there’s even a museum called the Museo del Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Let’s hope the images from that collaboration surface soon. The Parmigiano-Reggiano consortium also sponsored tennis player Jannik Sinner. But Parma itself is always available in the interim. Cheers!
