We have spent a fabulous weekend with “some” of our Swiss Family. Esther , Jean-Pierre and Claudie came for a “holiday” to Italy to see us. They arrived for a late lunch on Friday, after a 5 and a half hour drive. After a lunch at “Osteria Roberts” we made a visit to a winery not far from us.

It was the winery of Domenico Clerico but a little history first………

Domenico’s father had been growing grapes for a very long time, and in 1976 he asked Domenico if he wanted to take over the reins of the winery , which he did. Over the years he purchased more land and grew different grapes to produce different wines. Today he specialises in Barolo wines.

The story goes that for many years Domenico worked in cellars underground, and felt like he was living and working “like a mushroom”, so he built a magnificent new winery and cellar in 2013 at a cost of 40 million euros!!!!!! Not bad eh?????? It is complete with a house and a magnificent pool which he decided not to live in because he didn’t want to mix “work with home life”.

We did a tour of the complex, including the massive cellar and finished off with a tasting. His cellar produces 110,000 bottles per year.

We went to dinner at Le Case della Saracca, a superbly renovated Palazzo (Palace) at the top of the hill in the old village of Monforte , walking/staggering distance from home! It was extremely unusual , and the architect did a fantastic job.

We had a pre dinner drink with the many tapas at the bar, but we were a little disappointed with the dinner, however the spectacular surroundings made up for it.

On Saturday we decided to test Greg’s knees again , and we walked to Barolo. It was a lovely walk, again through the vineyards, about 50 minutes , and we all enjoyed it.

Of course, after a walk, one needs to hydrate and eat…….so we did! Again we had some great pasta, we haven’t had a bad one yet. Greg’s knees survived the walk back too!

We had a little rest, then off again to dinner. This time to Osteria dei Catari where we had been before and enjoyed. The food again was good, but the service was shocking. It is a little disappointing when you take guests!

On Sunday we traveled to Alba to…..   A. let the Swiss see the town and  ….. B.  of course to do lunch! We enjoyed a great lunch and then it was time to say goodbye to the Swiss. They headed back to Switzerland (another 6 hour drive) and we headed home (20 minutes). Which would you prefer??????

To walk off some of the eating and drinking we did on the weekend, we decided to do ANOTHER walk just around our little Monforte area. It was just over one hour. We think the 2 walks were a little too close together , as Greg’s knees were not as good, so he had to get the ice on them, but had a beer as well……just to be sure!

Today we have relaxed and have packed our overnight bags as tomorrow we are heading to Torino for a one night stay.

Elena is still very kindly bringing us home made jams, cherries from her garden and wine! We do not know how we are going to thank her. She is such a sweetheart!

So it’s that time again

Ciao for now

Greg and Rhonda

xxxxxxx