Month: September 2018

We left our apartment this morning without a plan. Sometimes that makes for a really interesting day and today was a bit unusual. We drove to Borolo but on a Sunday, the town was clogged with people visiting the famous wine town. The photo above shows one of the many Borolo vineyards. The countryside is beautiful and today many people were out hiking, biking, and motorcycling.

We drove on to our next destination Cherasco. To our surprise, they were having a Snail Festival!!

We tried a couple of interesting tidbits. Here’s Larry with his snail snack. Larry describes this as the ultimate slow food!

The town itself is charming with an arched entryway at each end of the Main Street.

Our next stop was the town of Bra. Bra was also festive with wine stops and dancing around town. We watched these Swing Dancers near the main square.

They invited us to join them and we followed along making our way to a hilltop venue.

They are part of a dance club called Swing Juice. They were very kind and even danced a couple of dances with us oldsters. Below is a photo of a couple dancing the Lindy Hop!

So, it’s been a very fun Sunday! Tomorrow we’ll pack up and head for Noli on the Ligurian Coast!

We drove about 30 minutes this morning to go to a huge outdoor market in the nearby larger town of Alba. In addition to peppers, we bought a roasted chicken and zucchini for dinner in our apartment this evening.

I bought Larry a scarf–it’s called a foucol–and is the type worn by Italian truffle hunters. This region is known for white truffles and now Lar is prepared for the hunt!

I’m back from a walk around town. The late afternoon sun lighting the inside of this church in La Morra was stunning.

We’re enjoying a couple of relaxed days here. We’ll be in La Morra at least two more nights.

Yesterday we drove to Asti of Asti Spumante sparkling wine fame. We liked the town! On the way back to Neive, we stopped in the hilltop village of Barbaresco–another town with a famous wine name.

We were happy to return to Neive where we had dinner our last night at the no nonsense Osteria Borgo Vecchio–just up the hill and on the left in this photo.

Today we drove not far to our next stop, La Morra, a village in the wine region near Barolo. We are happy with this small apartment that we’ll be staying in for the next three nights. The price is right at less than $60.00 per night, the kitchen is well-stocked and we were thrilled to find a washing machine!

The Wi-Fi is a little slow here so this is a quick post. The weather is great–crisp in the mornings and warm during the day. Larry has a cold but is feeling better. It’s nearly time for pizza and we’re happy!

The Hotel Borgese where we’re staying in Neive serves a wonderful breakfast. Larry tried and enjoyed this egg and cheese dish topped with truffles.

After breakfast we drove through the Langhe region of vineyards,

rolling hills and pretty villages.

At our wine tasting last night, we learned that it’s still a couple of weeks until the grapes are harvested. Here’s Larry preparing to taste.

For the price of 10 Euros we tasted 5 different wines from vineyards nearby. Wine varieties included Dolcetto, Barbaresco, and Barbera. The bottles ranged in price from 11 Euros to 40 Euros. We learned quite a lot about wine production in the Piedmonte region of Italy from our enthusiastic, young teacher.

The Hotel here was recommended to us by Atlanta friends. It’s very cozy and not too expensive. The clever table decorations with gourds and peppers are perfect for fall!

Ciao!

We’ve packed up and moved on but we have nice memories from our stay in Turin. So many beautiful shop windows with everything from olive oils and pastas;

to pretty party dresses!

It’s easy to get around the city with an elaborate transportation system of buses, trams, and this slick Metro.

We were feeling a bit silly on our last evening around the town and took this selfie.

Now we’ve moved on to the hillside village of Neive with a wonderful Clock Tower,

And lovely church.

The overnight temps will be in the 40 degree-range. Coolest so far!

We will use this as a base to explore the Langhe region for the next three nights!

We’ve heard that the museum here is the best outside of Cairo. Though we haven’t been to Egypt, we’d say that this Egyptian Museum is pretty fantastic!

Below is a statue of Ramses II.

And this hall is lined with images of the lioness goddess Sakhmet.

In addition to a great Egyptian Museum, Turin is also known for excellent food–like this nicely presented cheese appetizer.

We’ve been to a food shop called Eataly in New York City but there is also a fantastic one here in Turin. It’s packed with fun Italian food items that are reasonably-priced and beautifully displayed!

Around town, we love the cluttered look of this bar.

And how one city street looks at night.

Today is our last day to explore Turin. We think we’ll be back!

Turin is an elegant, easily walkable city with many great restaurants and pastry shops.

We wore ourselves out Saturday at the Slow Food Festival tasting food from all regions of Italy and all around the world.

This vendor from Italy provided samples of cheese made from cow, sheep, and donkey milk. Actually quite delicious.

We sampled vermouth made in Turin at this booth.

And gelato cleverly scooped onto a bed of puréed zucchini and topped with nuts, seeds and veggie chips at this one!

We took a class given by star pizza chef Stefano Volo,

who prepared pizza Bianca with locally-caught trout, ricotta and hazelnuts!

We met a delightful trio of Brits at our hotel! They’re heading for the Food Fest today while we rest from a couple of whirlwind days!

Cheers!

We landed in Amsterdam early this morning to gusty winds and rain.  Many flights were canceled but our flight to Turin was one of the few that departed as scheduled.

Larry has been passionate about his genealogy research and today in Amsterdam, while waiting for our flight he met a distant relative from Wilmington, North Carolina!  They were able to compare genealogy research notes.  As an aside, the couple from Wilmington have been impacted by Hurricane Florence.  They’ve been without power for 6 days, plus their car was smashed by a tree.  Then, on arriving in Amsterdam, they learned that their flight to Florence, Italy was canceled.  They were rebooked on our flight to Turin, where they caught a train to Florence.  They had a great attitude, in spite of recent difficulties!

For us, we took a bus from the airport to Turin’s main train station and then walked several/many blocks to our hotel.  We’re staying at Townhouse 70 and happily our room was available shortly after we arrived!  Here’s Larry patiently waiting in the hotel lobby.

We picked up a quick lunch at this pizza spot.

The arrival day is rough after an overnight flight with no sleep so we’ve had a restful day without much activity.

This city map shows how dense Turin city is with many spots of interest.  We’re especially looking forward to the Egyptian Museum and the Slow Food Festival.

Basic Italian pasta and wine at Bistrot El Puig D’Estelles.

And music in the piazza by Big Daddy Wilson from North Carolina USA!

We’re grateful for a safe journey and a fun new city to explore!

We must really love Italy (we do!) because we’re leaving soon and heading there for another Italian adventure! We’ll visit two regions that are new for us–The Piedmont and Liguria–and add two cities in Tuscany that we haven’t visited in many years.

Our itinerary includes a mix of big cities plus mountain and seaside villages.  We plan to visit markets, museums, hike, plus eat plenty of pizza, pasta, and gelato!  And, we have tickets to a Slow Food Festival in Turin this weekend.

We have a brief stopover in Amsterdam, and if all goes as planned, we should be in Turin by Friday morning!

Here’s our tentative itinerary:

The Piedmont:

• Turin-4 nights
• Neive-3 nights (near Alba)
• La Morra-2 nights (near Barolo)

The Ligurian Coast:

• Noli-2 nights (near Savona)
• Camogli-4 nights (near Rapallo)
• Genoa-2 nights

Revisiting Tuscany:

• Siena-3 nights
• Florence-2 nights

We’re excited!

Please feel free to follow along if you’d like to!

Ciao!

Sharon and Larry