Sorry all about the lack of updates lately. We have been without net access. However, at each stop, we would write our thoughts into Word, so we will post a lot at once, but it will still be a daily summary.
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We left France today. It seems that as soon as you cross into Italy, you’re in the middle of the mountains. These people must have spent decades blowing through them, to create tunnels. Without exaggerating we went through at least 100 of them, maybe more. Some of them were 2-3 kilometers long.
We almost considered driving straight to Florence, since it was going to be a good 4-5 hour drive, but we reconsidered, and took a detour into Barolo. This is where they grow the Nebbiolo grape to produce the famous Barolo wine. Driving past the vines into the town was pretty neat. The grapes were still on the vine, just ready to be harvested. We stopped and picked a few grapes off the bunches to taste them. It sounds almost stupid, but grapes taste the way the wine does. The skin was bitter and kind of tough to chew, but the juice inside was so sweet and delicious. Almost like a blueberry. I told Stacey we were never eating grocery store grapes again. They were so good.
Barolo is our new favourite place in the world. It is the most charming little town ever. The population can’t be more than 700 people. It’s so far out of the way that only wine lovers will go there. I hope it stays that way. Every building is painted cheerfully in yellow, or red. The people are so friendly. They know their wine is among the world’s best, but there’s no pretension whatsoever, unlike, say, in Napa Valley.
We wanted to find a quick bite to eat, and maybe visit a winery or two before we hit the road to Florence. There were maybe 4 places to eat in town, and one of them was closed. The second place had a cool little patio out front, but the menu posted out front only showed real food; we wanted a quick pizza. We turned around to leave, and the little owner of the place comes running out to convince us to stay. He told Stacey that they had a beautiful patio out back with a view of the sea, and we just had to see. Of course we’re at least 70km inland, so no sea view is possible, but they patio out back did have a spectacular view of the town and surrounding countryside. Our little owner man shrugged and said “OK, no sea view, but it’s nice anyway”. We loved his charm and decided to eat there. So glad we did. Our food was incredible, they had a 5 page wine list, and most of them were local Barolo’s. They were selling them for a fraction of what we would pay at home.
Our quick lunch turned into a 3 hour marathon. It was so relaxing; we totally fell in love with the area. We seriously considered staying there for the night and skipping Florence altogether. The only reason we didn’t stay was that we had already prepaid in full the hotel there. We reluctantly agreed that we had to carry on. As we were leaving, we were thanking the owner, and our waitress. I asked them what was the best store to pick up a few bottles of wine, when he said that there was a store down the road that had a good selection, but it was overpriced. “Why not”, he said “Buy some from me? I’ll give you a good price”.
So we started going over his huge selection. He sold us a dozen different Barolo’s, all at his cost. Then, just to be nice, he made it a baker’s dozen, the 13th, was on him. This guy knew his wine inside and out. He knew everything about every vintage, and could recite the glass ranking in the Gambero Rosso guide, which we happened to buy for the trip, thanks to Jess and Sam and their Amazon.com gift certificate.
Thank you Maurissomo for making Barolo so special for us. Already, we are planning our return there. Never before has leaving a place tugged at the heartstrings so much. We will be returning there as soon as possible.
The drive to Florence was 4 hours, and uneventful. Our wonderful GPS system has saved us repeatedly. These old cities have no street signs!!! We got to our hotel around 9:00, had a simple pizza dinner at a little sidewalk pizzeria, and walked around for about an hour. Going to bed reasonably early, as we are going to see David in the morning. Our hotel receptionist told us to be there 30 minutes before the Galleria del Academia opens, otherwise the wait can be hours long.
Our quick lunch turned into a 3 hour marathon. It was so relaxing; we totally fell in love with the area. We seriously considered staying there for the night and skipping Florence altogether. The only reason we didn’t stay was that we had already prepaid in full the hotel there. We reluctantly agreed that we had to carry on. As we were leaving, we were thanking the owner, and our waitress. I asked them what was the best store to pick up a few bottles of wine, when he said that there was a store down the road that had a good selection, but it was overpriced. “Why not”, he said “Buy some from me? I’ll give you a good price”.
So we started going over his huge selection. He sold us a dozen different Barolo’s, all at his cost. Then, just to be nice, he made it a baker’s dozen, the 13th, was on him. This guy knew his wine inside and out. He knew everything about every vintage, and could recite the glass ranking in the Gambero Rosso guide, which we happened to buy for the trip, thanks to Jess and Sam and their Amazon.com gift certificate.
Thank you Maurissomo for making Barolo so special for us. Already, we are planning our return there. Never before has leaving a place tugged at the heartstrings so much. We will be returning there as soon as possible.
The drive to Florence was 4 hours, and uneventful. Our wonderful GPS system has saved us repeatedly. These old cities have no street signs!!! We got to our hotel around 9:00, had a simple pizza dinner at a little sidewalk pizzeria, and walked around for about an hour. Going to bed reasonably early, as we are going to see David in the morning. Our hotel receptionist told us to be there 30 minutes before the Galleria del Academia opens, otherwise the wait can be hours long.
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