After another fabulous breakfast at Villa Ketty, off to an early departure of 08:00. It would be another long, but interesting walking day. We started at Gragnano, a hill town 25 minutes due east of Vico Equense.
It is known for some of Italy's best dried pasta. Did I mention we saw several huge Barilla facilities on our travels throughout Italy. But this was wildly different than those big time producers.
Our pastificio (pasta factory) this morning was Gerardo di Nola. It fit on just a couple of floors in what looked like an old apartment building. This enterprise was founded 400 years ago by Alfonso Gerardo. They export all over the world.
We were met at the door by Giovanni Assante, the current spirit and inspiration of the company. His nickname is the Anthropologist of Taste and for good reason.
First we had a tour of some of the storage areas. They make about a ton of pasta per day. You can tell what is in the boxes by the sample package sitting prominently on top of each group.
They are in the process of expanding. Loved the windows in this old building.
Next we saw how the process works. Generally dry pasta ingredients are water and semolina flour (or other flour), while fresh pasta is made with eggs and flour. All raw semolina here is selected from the primo growing areas of Italy and are of top quality.
After the raw ingredients are mixed and kneaded, various shaped pastas are rolled and cut, molded, or extruded through an assortment of the highest quality brass dies. What a complicated machine!!
Today they were using the brass die extruder (which resulted in a hole through the middle of the pasta). This particular die produced a short, fat rigatoni style. 
Here they are inspected.
Drying the pasta is a critical step. If dried to quickly, it will crack. If dried to slowly, it can become moldy or spoil. Drying lowers the moisture content to about 12-13%. In addition to drying about 24 hours on the racks, they dry 4-5 more hours in its packaging before being sealed.
Then three workers weigh and package by hand.
Giovanni said this lady is his fastest packager. See that hand go.
This chart displays the pastas made here. At least 14 basic shapes.
They also make tomato products--sauces, canned whole tomatoes, etc.
Of course, they only use Italy's certified San Marzano tomatoes.
My only regret was that we did not get a huge plate of spaghetti and marinara for "brunch."
Fun fact. Here are the world's largest pasta producers (in tons).
Total is 14.3 million tons per year.
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If you have visited any of these places, we would love to hear your comments. Or send us recommendations of places we should not miss.