Albergo Ristorante Il Cascinalenuovo Asti

... otherwise."
I'm happy to play along.

"Did you eat any good food in France?" I'm asked
My time in France was short, but to be honest, I didn't really eat anything spectacular. "No, not really" I say half joking.
"Of course you didn't. All the best food is in Italy and within Italy, the best food is here, in this home. I feel sorry for the rest of the world."

Our lunch was of the sort that I would hope to serve if I had visiting royalty; not dirt-bag, layabout ...

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!

Saturday 20/6/09 Cocconato

Just outside Cocconato, next to our agriturismo, is a large factory outlet/ clothing store for "conbipel". I presume they must make clothing on the premises as it is very large. Alison went in to ...

... quality but the presentation and interpretation is outstanding. There is a basic,chronologic thread from Neolithic times, pre 4000 bc, to Roman occupation with many rooms arranged thematically,writing, statuary, grave goods etc.

We spent 3 ½ hours there before the legs gave out. Memorable items were a full set of gravegoods from the architect Kha and his wife ...

... with us on our travels. This is cheaper and makes us much more flexible. Breakfast this morning was bread and a selection of jams and some really nice salami. Yojurt also and a really strong brew of Italian black coffee. There was also some of the glorious fresh soft cheese called robiolo, a speciality of Cocconato.

Today was a driving day, down to Alba which is medium sized town with a large central ...

... with a surprising amount of fodder cropping.

Cocconato is a prosperous hilltop village between Turin and Asti, we chose our accomadation here because of the location and its kitchenette. We were somewhat disconcerted to find that although we had a fridge, sink and stovetop there were no utensils, pots, pans, crockery, nothing. We have some plastic plates and picnic cutlery but we did a quick ...

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 . . . .

Went to Perletto a couple of weeks after I had arrived in Italy. Got there and went around, took some photos of the place. Rode the bike around, stopped at a few places to get a Moretti every once in a while. In the evening went to eat ...

... I went to two bars at night. I met Ricca's friends who were a bunch of college students. They tried to talk to me in English. They were singing and I recorded that. I had fun. We went to the Red Lion but it was boring. The place was quite characteristic. At 12ish we returned home. Ricca was a little sick. We went straight to bed.

... that were with the mayor, and said they were Olympic athletes. I thanked him, and he said told me to enjoy the games. I went back to Jen and she was like "Maria what are you doing!?!" We took like two steps, and I saw a few people walk up to a woman and ask her for autographs. I turned to Jen and was like "I want an autograph, who do you think it is?" She was like "Maria, you're crazy!" I walked over to her, and said "Mi scusi," I had my ticket in my hand, with a pen ...