Thursday, Aug 31
Friday, Sep 1
Saturday, Sep 2
Sunday, Sep 3
Monday, Sep 4
Tuesday, Sep 5
Wednesday, Sep 6
Thursday, Sep 7
Friday, Sep 8
Saturday, Sep 9
Sunday, Sep 10
Sunday, Sep 3 - Sinio, Italy
Had a light breakfast out in the courtyard. The day is gorgeous! Everyone filed out of the old church across the piazza (square) at noon, and then the bells rang like crazy and drove the pigeons nuts.
First we went to eat at Le Torri (the Towers) for lunch in Castiglione Falleto. We ate on the terrazzo (terrace) with a beautiful view of Barolo vineyards. I had marinated salmon, Pat had cold veal with a tuna sauce (which it turns out is very typical cuisine in the area). We both had pasta. Oh, and the Barbera d’Alba Monti wine was fabuloso!
We then wandered the village to see the castle and the church. Lovely church! Looked like a cuckoo clock. The interior was stunning, and this was just a little village church.
We decided to go see La Morra, which overlooks the entire Barolo area. Once there, we discovered the whole town was having a huge wine festival, with wine tasting. Over 40 vineyards were represented. We walked up the medieval main street and tasted Barolos, Barbarescos, and Barberas (our favorite). La Morra had a park area that overlooked the whole Langhe Piemonte region – vineyards snaking over every hill and orchards filling every valley. I had a bit too much wine for a hot afternoon, and so I rested a while on a statue while Pat continued to do some wine tasting.
We finally made our way back through Gallo to Sinio, and we took a nap in our castle room. People seem to agree that the quality of the wines in this area is the most consistently good in Italy. Grapes are everywhere, ripening in the sun, as far as the eye can see.
Oh, and the road up to the castello is very narrow!
For dinner we ate at the castello again. First we listened to some accordion music and more literary readings, this time done in only Italian. This we listened to from the window of our room. At 8:00 pm we went down to dinner. We both had a crab salad appetizer, then I had beef filet and Pat had a rack of lamb. Excellent food, little hard-working Romanian waitress. We didn’t finish dinner until after 11:00 pm.
In the dining room were Italians, British, Germans and Americans, all talking at once. There don’t seem to be many Americans here. They all prefer to be on the Mediterranean, I guess. However, the owners of the Castello di Sinio are Americans, originally from California.
The breeze through our window was so pleasant. The church bells were loud, though. Might have to do something about that.
