Fabriano and Matellica

                Today we visited Fabriano which is a paper making city. We visited the museum which contained the ancient paper making machines that are still currently used. While today most of the paper we see that is made in Fabriano is made by modern machinery, there is still a good amount of paper hand-made by craftsmen.

                The paper process is a fairly simple one. The paper was made from linens which the paper makers would get from old cloths. They would cut up the cloth in to smaller pieces and put it in to a tub that was part of a machine. This machine basically pounded out all of the dirt from the cloth and then created the cloth in to a pulpy material. This material was then put in to a large basin that needed to be constantly churned so that the pulp did not settle and the mixture could be turned in to paper. Then the paper maker would dip a mold in to the liquid and start the process of the actual paper. This process of scooping the mixture up and then making sure that it was an even thickness is a very intense and meticulous process. The paper maker must have the proper hand motions which takes a long time to master. Once the mold is created, the paper is pressed on to a cloth that is stacked with other pieces of wet paper. These cloths are then put under a huge compress that squeezes the majority of the water out of the paper. After this process, the pieces of paper which are still damp are then hung out to dry. After this step, the paper is technically able to be used; it has been dried out and has the consistency of a piece of paper. Paper makers take an extra step though to smooth out the piece of paper so that it does not have such a rough texture to write on. Writing on this paper though is also an issue; it is not waterproofed so the ink soaks right in to it so your words or drawings or whatever do not stay. The ancient paper makers discovered the animal gelatin would solve this issue though; to create this gelatin they boiled animal parts (skin and bones basically) and created a gelatin which the paper makers would then dip the paper in to. This was the last step of the process. It is a very long and tedious process that takes a lot of skill and time to master.

                After Fabriano, we visited Matellica. There we visited Centro Italiano d’Analisi Sensoriale where we did some flavor tasting. The company works with manufacturers and producers to help market their product as well as help consider the consumer’s taste in the process. There we were given a local wine to taste and record our feelings about the taste, sight, and smell of the product without any new knowledge of how to do this professionally. We then were given two wines; one was more acidic than the other which was more salty. The next wines we were given were supposed to smell either like vanilla or almond. Finally we were told to taste the first wine we were given with the new knowledge we had gained about how to taste products and how our senses come in to play. It was really interesting to see how much our senses really come in to play when tasting food and drinks.