La Cascina Del Monastero La Morra

Flew to Milan from Dublin then took the train to Savona to board the cruise. Quaint little seaport town which I wish I had more time to explore. Forgot to take a picture of the ship! Not sure how I feel about a big cruise ship (3,800 passengers) but the price was right so thought I would experience it!

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 . . . .

Absolutely beautiful. Rather then having sand on the beach this place had giant rocks. I remember laying on the huge rocks and then jumping off of them into the water. It was a perfect place and I would love to go back again because it is so original and not as crowded with toursits as some other places that we went.

... until late November and early December. But walking down the street there are shops and shops that have different truffle products and every store that sells cheese or meat has a plate of truffles for sale sitting in the window . . .see the picture I have attached. There are a lot of highly recommended restaurants in Alba, and some decent shopping. When my mom was here we went into Asti search of one of the jewish temples and the area where ...

In Italy, power and money are viewed a little different then we think about it. Real money is in wine, and as it goes everywhere in the world, with some money comes some power. I have visited a few wineries by now, and work for a couple who owns one as well. I have watched the grapes ripen on the vine as I walk to work, I have participated in the harvest, and have watched the process of making wine ...

... Italy is not a starbucks kind of thing, you stop, you wait, you grab a croissant, you wait, you get your coffee, you wait, you drink, you wait, you pay and you leave! 35 mins! Yep that's right almost as long as we had been driving. What ever. Back to the car we go, and we are off again to our death! So we drive for about another 30 min and we enter into another small little town and park. And once again I am confused, but a little more educated this ...

Went to Cortemilia a second time, hired a car from Milan and drove there. Through Asti and Alba. Got to Cortemilia and looked for a place to stay, I went into this place I knew had decent hazelnut ice-cream. Turned out they had rooms.Went to that restaurant in Torre Bormida again, and bought an infamous bottle of grappa.Drove back to Milan the next ...

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 ...

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 ...

... days. When I got to Ila's house we had a fantastic Italian lunch with 'ear pasta' and different kinds of meats and figs together. YUM! Ilaria and I went downtown Torino and walked around, met with one of her friends, and saw some of the old buildings in the city, and some of the Olympic areas that are left from this last winter. And we stopped to have gelato (italian ice cream) in the rain....mmmm ...