Sue and I got up early to find some of the crew already awake. We jumped in the car and drove to the larger, “downhill” village, Castagnole delle Lanze. Sue did a big shop at the local supermarket while I found a bakery and cleaned them out of Cornetti (marmalade, cream, chocolate, Nutella, you name it, I bought it).
Here we see part of the crew enjoying a cornetto. There is a wonderful dining space beneath an arbor near the pool, and we ate all our meals there.
The kids couldn’t wait to get into the pool; here they are with their favorite playmate, Daniele Roberto Giansante.
Losing a bag with your clothing is surprisingly disorienting, and Emily and Andrew left for the largish town of Asti to do a bit of replacement shopping. The rest of us headed to the town of Treiso (one of the main Barbaresco wine villages) for lunch at the amazing modern restaurant La Ciau del Tornavento. Once again, even though we had lots of kids, they gave us the best table in the house, right up against the wall of glass looking out onto the vineyards.
We once again mixed the Piedmont classics with some unusual choices: Dan and I shared risotto with a light dusting of cocoa…and a big lobe of foie gras on top! Several of us had sweetbreads, and Sarah and Daniel had a fish called Amberjack in a light tempura-like robe. We again drank very well, with a bottle of local chardonnay followed by a 2014 Cigliuti Barbaresco from the Seraboella vineyard. It was lovely, bigger and more tannic than the Rabaja from the night before but perhaps not as perfumed or complex…not that we were complaining. We were too stuffed for dessert, but they brought us five extraordinary bites; we all agreed that the mocha eclair won the derby, but the others were close.
After a day of travel, everyone was ready to just relax, so there was a good deal more swimming in the late afternoon.
We had a long, lovely evening on the terrace; some of the crew even had some pasta and tomato salad! It had been around 92 in the valleys, and a bit cooler up here, but it cooled off beautifully as the evening went on.
Need I say that the light was beautiful?
