September 24, 2024–
Breakfast at our B&B in Montabone, Piemonte today:
PERFECT hosts who LISTEN well and are 100% customer-focused! They heard what we liked, where we wanted to go, what we wanted to see, what our interests were,…. This husband and wife team are of one mind when it comes to running this “project” of theirs, and from what I can tell, it works! So, breakfast:
Sunflower (phyllo pasta/bread stuffed with mortadella and salame cotto (cooked), and two eggs fresh from their chickens; raw fennel; homemade lemon cassata (like an open-faced jam cake); chocolate panna cotta with Pirouette cookie on top; Macedonia di frutta (bowl of fresh diced mixed fruits, lemon juice, and sugar); locally sourced lemon cake; red orange juice; long coffee and milk (long as in not as strong as espresso); Robiola with honey and walnuts, choice of yogurt if we wished (but we were too full)…. So very good! We are trying to explain that we typically do not eat this much for breakfast, but we definitely do not want to offend nor appear ungrateful for all that these wonderful people are doing on our behalf!
Today, we went to Cocconato di Asti, Asti, and Bra, all in the Piemonte region. Our hosts suggested we try Cocconato. They had not yet ever visited, but they had heard that it was a really nice place to explore. They said it was known as “the Riviera” of this region with a climate a little bit more temperate than the rest of Piemonte. It is a small town, with incredible panoramic views from its position high up on the hill, and it is attractively decorated with neighborhood flags/banners suspended overhead or otherwise displayed. Each flag has a sort of coat of arms for each of the respective “borghi”. Borghi are like streets that extend from the piazza in the historic section. The importance of this today was that the flags symbolize competing teams in the Palio di Asini, a celebratory donkey race, with medieval costumes and activities that are typical for the festa (feast) on the third weekend of September. The town dates back to the Middle Ages, as in 1200 to 1700s, with its typical piazzas, churches, old buildings, restaurants, bars, cafes hotels, and whatever the townspeople need on a daily basis. A truly charming small town, wherein some businesses were closed because it’s Tuesday, and some were closed because it was lunchtime (1 to 3 P.M.).
During that lunch time in Cocconato, we traveled to Asti. Asti is known for its wines and spumantes sold worldwide. Think, for example, of Gancia Asti Spumante. Asti is a larger city, in fact, it is also the province, but it still has its historical center, with several piazzas, one of which is the main piazza, church or churches, bars, cafes, stores of all kinds, restaurants, and so on. We stopped for a coffee and a croissant (aka cornetto) filled with orange or apricot jam. We ordered focaccia pizza slices for take-out.
We are a little nervous about driving up the hillside to our B&B at night. It is a narrow, two-way, one-lane winding road, with extremely sharp switchbacks, no street lights at all, and…no guard rails. Therefore, we try, but rarely have succeeded, to get back before dark. Thus the reason for today’s take-out “pizza.” We planned to eat that pizza in our room for dinner, safe and sound, on steady, flat ground beneath our feet.
From Asti, we drove to Bra, still in the Piemonte region. Bra is known for its sausage. The town is smaller than Asti but larger than Cocconato. It, too, is on a hilltop. Like any respectable town of this size, it has a main piazza/historical center, with old churches, bars, cafes, bakeries, restaurants, shops, and so on. It has a rocca, aka fort, as so many/most towns on the hilltop have. Because we arrived at close to 5 P.M., many establishments had reopened after lunch and were setting up for dinner. We ate a delicious hazelnut (nocciola) homemade gelato in a cone and a coffee gelato in a cup. In a nearby bakery/bread shop, we purchased a large “S” cookie (seems like an S-shaped buttter cookie) and a blueberry/sunflower seed cookie for dessert once we got “home.” AND…Dad bought a take-out panini (panino imbottito) with Bra bovine sausage (we THINK the sausage was cooked…). We toured two churches. The town was truly charming, and it seemed to have some interesting dining opportunities.
Because it was now about 7 P.M., we headed home. We did not make it before dark, but it was just at the brink of pitch-black lighting. Thank God we got “home” safely once again!
Dinner was composed of our take-out items in our “home.” It was not only delicious, but it was also more than satisfying.
We are grateful for another BEAUTIFUL day in Piemonte Italy!
Our Travels 