On Sunday, Northern Italy was rocked by a magnitude-6.0 earthquake. In the process, many cheese factories in the region suffered damage—and it is estimated that over 300,000 wheels of cheese, thought to be worth at least $320 million, have been destroyed.
The region, just north of the city of Bologna, is most famous for its Parmesan and Grana Padano. As the earthquake struck, wheels of the cheeses—which can weigh up to 90 pounds—came toppling from their storage shelves. It's suspected that, if anything, the $320 million total is an underestimate of the total value of damaged cheese, reports the Mirror.
There's no word on what will happen to the cheese, but you can bet some of the factory's employees are rolling them home as we speak. There will be some pretty stinky pasta doing the rounds this week, that's for sure.
Fortunately nobody was injured by the falling rounds of Parmesan, though throughout the region six people were killed and another fifty have been injured. [Mirror]
Images by Getty