Have you ever heard of a brand called De Cecco? For those who don’t, De Cecco is a pasta brand, and Veronica, Mom, Doriano, and I were going to have a tour in one of their factories! The factory was in Fara San Martino, which is close to where we lived, in Lama dei Peligni. We came there, put on robes and hats, and went inside.

First we saw how the machines formed the batter into the shapes of the pasta, for example spaghetti and ravioli. We also saw the pasta that was red and green, and our guide said that it is not artificially colored, just with spinach and tomato in it. He also took some of the batter shaped as spaghetti and gave it to us to taste! When we finished looking at (and eating:) the pasta-shaped batter, we went to the drying and packaging process.

When we came in the giant hall of the last processes, we first met a machine that carried the pasta to a thing that made it into nice pieces good for packaging and eating. The tour guide gave us some dry spaghetti to try! Nice and hard. We went along and saw that after the choppers the pasta got carried to a packaging machine. I was looking at it and every second or so, a complete package of pasta rolled out! The tour guide took one and showed it to us, and I got to see a just-made De Cecco pack of pasta! Then the tour guide threw it on the conveyor belt that put the packs in boxes.

That was the end of our tour. But not yet for my story! When we came out, each of us got 4 packs of pasta to take with us back home: 2 packs of ravioli and 2 packs of spaghetti. Niiiiiiiiiiice! We also went to the waterfall that gave the pasta plant water. I tasted it and it was SO CLEAR and SO COLD! It was nice.

We had a great tour. Next time I want to eat all the pasta over there!

Bonus: How many factories does De Cecco have?

a. 5

b. 2

c. 4

(answer in next post)