This past week the temperature has been hovering around the mid thirties and quite humid, so it has made it a little uncomfortable! Sorry Melbournites, but we know we will be complaining in 2 weeks about the cold!

As this has been our last week here in Monforte, we have slowed the pace down a little!!!

We decided to return to Serralunga and do a tour through the Castello. The oldest part of the Castello dates back to the 13th Century and was built by the Falletti Family, who owned over 50 Castles in the area! It is said that the family spent only 2 or 3 days a year in this particular one! They would come to collect taxes!!!! It was an interesting tour!

We decided to head into the town of Cuneo , about 50 kms away. We had seen pictures of a rather large Piazza and thought it looked rather spectacular. Well, imagine our surprise when we discovered it was market day and the lovely piazza was full of stalls selling “rubbish”. We were very disappointed as it detracted from the view. So we decided to head to a small village called Limone Piedmonte which we had been told about.

The village is one of Italy’s oldest Alpine ski areas, about 8 kms from the French border and was very picturesque, with the village centered around its 12th century church. We spent a lovely couple of hours wandering the cobbled streets ,  far away from the madness of Cuneo!

We decided in the last week , that here were some restaurants in the area that we hadn’t yet tried! One of these was Moda (above) in our village.

 

We were wondering how one would get the “prime table” at the restaurant on their terrazza panoramica, and we found out ……you pre book and go on a Monday night when it is not busy!

 

 

 

The view was wonderful from our little balcony , and we enjoyed another great dinner.

 

We did a little celebrating on the night as it was the 2 year anniversary of Greg’s retirement.

 

Another glass of wine please!!!!!!!!!! Some things never change!

 

 

Another great dinner, with a spectacular view was at La Torricella.

La Torricella is an Agriturismo, just outside our village. We ate outside , and the view over the countryside with the sun setting was magnificent! And more importantly, no mosquitoes!

The sun set was spectacular , and the silhouette of Mount Viso over our village was something to see.

The meal was rather delicious, no photos of the food this time, we were too busy taking photos of the landscape. and the wine wasn’t  too bad either!

Of course , the week was not all eating and drinking! We undertook a other jaunt through the vineyards from Barolo to Novello.

Again Greg needed to “ice” the knees! It must be working as he pulled up ok! Mind you the time was 10.30am ! Rhonda decided a coffee and water was in order but oh no…..not Gregory!

 

Today is our last day here in beautiful Monforte. Over the past couple of days , we have been re visiting our favourite watering holes and saying goodbye!

 

 

We had our last drinks at our favourite wine bar, Le Case della Saracca. Rhonda now has an EXTREME liking for red wine! Probably because the white here was not particularly to her liking!

 

 

On Friday night we had our last pizza in the square!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our 2 months here in Monforte , and we can certainly recommend both the village and Elena’s apartment. Thank you Elena for your friendship , and we wish you and your family all the best! Maybe one day we will return!

We head off tomorrow for Sicily, and spending 2 nights “in transit”. So next update will be from Sicily……fingers crossed , you never know about the mafia, or the internet!

So ciao ciao for now

lots of love

Greg and Rhonda

xxxxxxx