After surviving the 24 hours plus on the flight from Melbourne, we landed at Nice Airport to a glorious sunny 25 degree day.

We picked up our Citroen Lease car and proceeded to travel along the coast to our favorite village in Piedmont, Monforte d’Alba to Elena’s apartment where we have stayed 3 times before.

We would like to introduce to you our transport for 3 months. This is Harley! Named because of his number plate HD ( Harley Davidson). We couldn’t think of anything else!

We have settled in very well, it seems like home. Our mornings start with Greg exercising and Rhonda going for a walk to the top of the village. It’s a good workout! It’s then back home for breakfast and by 10am , it’s up to our favorite coffee spot for our morning cappuccino!

Not much has changed in the village since we were here 2 years ago, although we have noticed there seems to be a lot more tourists! The upper old village is still absolutely gorgeous and has the same great photo ops!

At Nice airport we picked up our mate Al who stayed in the village with us for 5 nights. We organized a ride in an Ape Collissimo which was a lot of fun. We spent 3 hours riding around the small villages of the Langhe (the wine district here). It was great because it saved both Greg and Al’s knees from a workout heading to the top castellos of the villages.

We remembered that we do not drive on a Sunday here as there is a lot of traffic , so we decided to do our first long lunch. We headed to Terralunna , not far from home and had a fabulous lunch. Rhonda’s asparagus tart, then beef cheek with roasted veges, and finishing off with a fabulous chocolate fondant torta was sensational. Greg’s choice of zucchini flowers, then roast lamb shoulder and roasted veges , finishing off with…..of course…. a pannacotta (a fail in Greg’s opinion, but it was his first one for the trip). We washed it down with a great bottle of Barbera d’Alba. It was a fabulous meal!

Monday here was Republic Day so we headed out for a drive to show Al some more of the local area. First stop was Cuneo, then onto Limone Piedmont, a cute little ski resort on the Italian French border. Then we called into Mondovi and took the Funicular up to the Old Town.

Chef Greg has fallen back into his role of chef, barman and barrista when we are home. He has cooked some great pasta, of course our chicken Caesar salad has already had a airing and the GnT’s and Aperols are flowing as well. We have been revisiting our favorite watering holes here in Monforte as well. Only problem is that one of them is at the very top of the old town, which necessitates a drive instead of walking up and down.

Al. Dry kindly shouted us a fabulous lunch for our combined birthdays. We went to Trattoria Della Posta, where we have been before and knew it was going to be a fabulous meal.

we started with an appetizer of melon and prosciutto. Entrees were a rabbit salad with herbs for Greg and Rhonda had a roasted onion with cheese and Bra sausage. We all had agnolotti del plan with a butter sauce…Omg delicious. Rhonda’s semi Freddo with a rich chocolate sauce capped off her meal beautifully, and of course Greg ordered his pannacotta but it was really a crème caramel…fail again so he is still searching!

we washed it down with a magnificent bottle of Barbaresco, a red wine typical of the area. Thanks Al for a wonderful memorable meal.

We went to another couple of villages to show Al. We took him to Novello and Alba for coffee.

Yesterday we were invited up to Elena’s home for lunch. It was lovely to see her husband Pippo again together with her sister Mariella. We had a lot of fun talking in English, French and our very limited Italian.

The weather has been fabulous and we have been enjoying some glorious sunsets. We are relaxing a lot around the apartment, and trying to save Greg’s knees as much as possible.

Greg is struggling to walk far, the cortisone injection has not had the outcome we were hoping for, but we are doing what we can.

So it’s that time , refreshment time

Ciao ciao from Monforte

Greg and Rhonda