Albergo Ristorante Della Valle Asti

... Not a cane in sight in this house.

We waste no time getting to the point, we're both hungry, so we sit down to lunch, and Carlo assumes his usual role as translator.

"I feel sorry for the rest of the world" his dad says, shaking his head "because nobody eats as we do, here in this house." he continues, pointing at the table for emphasis.

As my friend Elyse says "no one in the world is as sure as the Italians, that their food is the best. You simply can not tell ...

Destination 404

km197'196

A wonderful winding route via a inland section have lead me from Pisa to the coastline around Genova. But since in that part of the environment it was very hard to find a spot for bushcamping I took the toll freeway to prevent to get stuck in the chaotic traffic of Genova and headed north into the highlands of the northern region of Genova. A beatiful spot at the top of a mountain has provided perfect views to sunset and sunrise, but a bloody cold night!

... shop this afternoon and had a look round then went again and came back with some clothing She was quite impressed.

It was a general rest day today after our trip to Turin yesterday. We pack up and head back to France tomorrow.

... This included there household furniture such as beds, food such as bread and meat, tools of trade including measures. Makeup, clothing and the wig of Merit. There were two large rooms of statuary including Seti 1 carved at about 5metre high. Many many drawings on stone and papyris including the acrobat I managed to photograph.

A wonderful day and highlight of the trip.

Thursday 18/6/09 Alba and Barolo

Our accomadation here at Cocconato is called Cascina Rosengarna, it is more motel like than we have been used to, but is comfortable all the same. There is a restaurant attached which serves our breakfast and we have booked in there for tea tonight as well. Breakfasts are really good so we will be missing lunch over the next few days and just taking our water bottle and some ...

... pretty much all the way from Florence to Turin. The country side changes enormously in this trip. From Tuscany with its relatively small scale orchards, vineyards and vegetable plots, up into the Po valley with larger scale agriculture. Rice and intensively managed trellised orchards. Then into the Piedmont hills around Asti with vineyards on southfacing hills and hazel nuts in the flat areas ...

Arrived in Alba. Extremely jetlagged. I tried diligently to sleep on the plane, but to no avail. Didn't know where to go when I got off the plane and the customs officer didn't speak English, but he understood Spanish. Hallelujah! Add the Torino airport to an ever-growing list of places in which Spanish came unexpectedly in handy. Take a peek at these pictures of my home for the next several months . . . .

... Torre Bormida, it was the real deal. I regret not taking pictures. The following day I cut the grass, was probably 50 degrees inside the suit. Went for a bike ride afterwards. On the last day we went to a dog festival in Cortemilia.

Written in my notebook

Clara had an appointment and left quite early. Ricca and us went to his papa's apartment for lunch. The food was great. We had beef steak, risotto with porcini mushroom, white wine, etc. I was already stuffed by the steak. Ricca's brother is very good in pool. It was three or 4 something when we set out for ...

... painting that obscured earlier work. Even the sketching underneath showed different ways that the artist had strayed from the original penciling. Academia had a lot of explanations with the paintings, which I found to be very informative, but also I had a hard time lifting my head up to look at the actual paintings instead of reading all about them. In the Uffizi gallery, there were less explanations, but it ...