You may have tried to read this day's blog before it had words...and to all of you ( 1 or 2) I say...I love you!!! Thanks for your fearless faithfulness, diving in to this daily journal of enjoyment and enabling me to increase my energy for continued inputting of events and stories. Your efforts were not in vain...I just was too tired last night to add text to the photos...or should I say, Dan was too anxious to play FIFA soccer and wrestled me until I cried uncle and gave over the netbook, or perhaps I should say Peggy was finished reading her 324th long novel and wanted to get at her facebook perusing...or perhaps just the truth, sitting in the bed with one small pillow behind my back didn't provide the appropriate angle to accurately hit the keyboard and thus I kept retyping up to the point when I said....manana... So it's manana...and here we go. Today was our last day in the land of the Nebbiolo grape...the KING of Italian grapes, as it is 100% of the world renowned Barolo and Barbaresco wines. We decided to hike from our B and B down the vineyards, around the forested river lined shrubbery and straight up to the top of the village called Barbaresco, on the hiking path..Sentiero Delle Rocche (path among the rocks)
First we came straight up from our casa Ressia which is visible well below Peggy...at which time, by the way, she alerted me to her new hiking strategy..to stop whenever I stop. Brilliant! Up to this point, while I was catching my breath, she would work hard to catch up...since her stride is shorter (and she has a much better low gear)...and as soon as she caught up , I would take off again, having been well rested...which never gave her a breath...This new strategy also provides many more great photo ops for me to take of her as she is far enough away to perfectly frame some of the "Faces of Peg" I want to record for eternity...like joyful patience
After straight up the vineyard, owned by Alessandro and his family, it was time to come straight down...
You will notice that we had to ford a rushing torrent of white water to reach the other side of our hiking trail...Dan used his amazing, light on his feet, ninja moves to avoid any damage to his shoes or ego...I then made it across like a mountain goat on a level road...pas de problem....And, not to be undone...
Peggy pulled out her rarely seen, not to be matched, world renowned Polish balancing technique that she has perfected over the years and as a result, most of those boulders found her foot atop them at just the right time, except, perhaps for the very last one...poor boulder...and her shoe dried off quickly though:)
The forest was a surprise and very lush, which provided much needed shade and only 1 or 2 stinging nettles..but that's a whole different story..
Showing us how he would protect us from on rushing chiangale, Dan's intense chaingale scaring facial pose gave us incredible confidence to carry on through the deep jungle like path
The panoramas were actually spectacular as we once in a while broke out to a clearing with views of the Tanaro River
Our destination is seen below in the distance...by the way that's her pointer finger...
We cruised up through the vineyards on a beautiful sunny day, and for the record, here is what Nebbiolo vines look like in the early summer
The vinedressers/farmers have their hands full just to trim and top the rows and rows of vines. You can see the trimming machine and on the left side has completed a few rows, while on the right side...work to be done...
About 2 hours into our hike we reached our destination...the other perfect Elva bench which we sat in last year as well...at the very top of the town of Barbaresco, just under the huge tower.
Walking through the quiet streets (it was lunch time), Dan and Peggy looked like they fit right in:)
I did say it was lunch time, and we found the soup nazi working in an Italian mini market and gelateria. Trying to buy a melon, I squeezed the two ends to check for ripeness, as any careful shopper would...and a small part of the melon was rotten. Our mini market owner proceeded to "yell" at her co worker for letting me squeeze the melon in the first place. The coworker kindly exchanged it for a beautifully ripe and perfectly sweet Tuscan melon, while the other was fuming under her breath....A few slices of prosciutto, a chunk of amazingly tangy cheese, foccaccia bread chunks, some ice cold water and a fabulous bench (Elva's other one), and we were able to enjoy our picnic with no thought to the vitriole being exchanged back in the market. When the nightmarish lady brought out the sharp knife for us to borrow, I wasn't exactly sure what she planned to do with it...thankfully the friendly one took it and handed it to me with a smile and a wink. Did she want me to take care of her problem???
We then found the Enotria, whch is the local community sponsored tasting room for their amazing Barbarescos...and it shouldn't surprise us by now that sadly, they took an old church and have converted it for commercial use..
The wines cost 2 euros to taste, each bottle was between 20 and 38 euros, and they definitely weren't as tasty as the Nebbiolo we had bought just 2 days previously from a different region just 5 miles away, for 10 euros. Barolo and Barbaresco are excellent, no mistaking that, but their huge price differential from surrounding villages is more a win from marketing ability (that's right!!!) , not quality of winemaking. IMHO:)
It was time to head back down the vineyards, as we glanced behind us once again at the ancient tower that is the visual landmark for Barbaresco...and in front of us, the Tanaro river, and a steep downhill through the vines.
After returning, showering and talking with other guests (one of which is a Captain of a private 110 foot yacht owned by a wealthy American)...we decided to bring out the Roero region Nebbiolo, produced just on the other side of the Tanaro River from Barbaresco, just to see if we had made a mistake with our 10 euro purchase. We had not! But that became a moot point when our host, Alessandro, let us smell his "party" for the night. He and a friend had found 6 black truffles (the other reason this region is famous), and rather than sharing them with his guests (us)...as Jim probably assumed, he decided to invite all his buddies for a traditional truffle and tagliatelli party at their friend's house...bye bye truffles...the smell was nice...and thankfully, it wasn't the day's last smell of these delicious fungi...
Seeing those prized tubers being carried away, to break the bleak, gray, depressing mood that overtakes whenever black truffles are around and I don't get to enjoy their earthy taste, I then said, ok family let's have a great conversation instead....here's what I was up against....hmmm...I don't think they were as affected as me that the fungi dilecti had vamoosed...what do you think?
It was our last night in the Piemontese region, and we found a hilltop restaurant in Nieve, that had previously been a 1 Michelin Star establishment, but due to family changes had lost that star, while maintaining their quality in many other ways. Yep...back to food pictures...We all had our own starter, which included the amazing collection of ingredients you see below...chicken, sun dried tomato, egg yolk (the yellow bits), cherries, radish, cheeses, spinach etc etc...wow what a way to start...
Then came our local fresh trout in a mustard something sauce on fennel slices...double wow...
Followed by my “you've got to be kidding me, and thank you Lord” asparagus and artichoke "pudding" covered (yeah baby) in black truffle slices...
Then Dan and Peggy both had their homemade pasta with a light cream, cheese and meat sauce...pretty much melt in your mouth...
While I snacked on my next plate...I guess I should first say that Peggy's menu had no prices, and she, along with Dan, chose the Special menu for the Day, just based on description. To my delight, their choice, although not inexpensive, was half the cost of my menuJ))Of course we all shared, but this may explain why I somehow got the truffles and they didn't... This dish was one Christine would have loved...if not just for the Parmesan Crisp or Frico Cup. I certainly was Freako when it arrived, as it was smothered with tiny ravioli filled with cheese and again surrounded by multiple slices of black truffle...no way can I describe this taste except perhaps to say it was better than burnt popcorn kernels:))…and for me that’s saying a lot...as you all know!
Peggy and I switched main dishes at this point because she really likes the edible odd pieces parts...as you all know also, which in this case is veal tail roasted and osso buco styled, with eggplant and polenta...I'm not the big fan of polenta...or pieces parts...
Which means, Dan and I both had the duck thigh, like confit, with asparagus, polenta, leeks and mild roasted green peppers. A combination that really worked, except for the polentaJ
Dessert was this huge fruit, chocolate, and sorbet cornucopia, dusted with white and dark chocolate shavings
Followed by a plate of various cookies, meringues and assorted sweets, which by this time could only be gazed at..except by Dan...he ate everything!
As you can tell, this is a 10:33pm shot of Dan in the middle of a massive sugar rush...which ended for him by 2am after many exciting FIFA internet games...Peggy and I long asleep by that time...since we were excited to be getting up early so we could drive to Geneva airport and pick up Ben by 1:30pm...only 5 hours away...That is, without getting lost...and just a wee bit longer if you do get lost simply trying to avoid paying 40 euros for a swiss autoroute one use pass...we felt so much like Steve trying to beat the system…but that's tomorrow's fun to tell...
A picture may indeed be worth a thousand words but I miss the words!
ReplyDeleteThe truffles alone are worth a story.
Miss you all. Jim