September 26, 2024—
Today’s adventures began with another incredible home-made breakfast by our phenomenal hosts, followed by a short photo shoot in Mombaruzzo and a visit to the main piazza of Cuneo. Breakfast was composed of a presentationally-inviting platter of small crispy croissants, made for dipping in the round Camembert cheese in the center of the dish. Both the croissants and cheese round were baked to perfection and served warm, such that the cheese was soft in the center and just the right texture and ooey-ness for dipping. In addition to this, of course, we had fresh figs and green grapes, the figs being from this property; chocolate flan made with jabanero peppers—delicious! A bit of a zing after eating it, but very, very mild; pear and quince apple fruit salad in lemon and just a bit of sugar; red orange juice; water; home made crostata; yogurt for the taking—we couldn’t, we just could.not.fit.anything.else.in.the.stomach; perhaps other things, I cannot even recall because I could not eat any more; and, of course, coffee at the end! The coffee is being treated more like a dessert, at the end of breakfast, whereas at home, the very first thing I do is beeline for a vat of coffee.
These hosts are just so gracious! We need to vote from overseas for the first time ever, and our host printed the ballots for us, checked with the local post office about timing compliance, and so on. Tomorrow, we will personally bring the completed ballots to the post office to whom our host has spoken and send them via regular mail so that they reach the Du Page election commission well before the stated deadline. Our hosts do not have to do these things for us, but they are just so attentive and happy to help with whatever we need. They truly are way above the high bars of perfection!
We travelled to Mombaruzzo, not all that far away from where we’re staying. That is in the heart of the langhe (recall that langhe refers to the neatly-arranged rows upon rows of vines that yield the grapes that produce much of the world’s major wine/spumante labels). Most of the green (moscato) grapes have been harvested by now, but quite a few of the dark purple grapes are still clinging to the vines. So it was in this particular vineyard in Mombaruzzo. The distinctive and fun part of that vineyard, however, were the outer fence posts that were transformed into the appearance of colored pencils! So very pretty—and fun! We HAD to take their pictures!
We traveled to Cuneo, a VERY large city and province not too far away. As a bathroom break, we found it convenient to stop at one of those green/yellow McDs that we’ve been eyeing in Italy thus far—to date, we’d only stopped at one. Today, we found McD as part of a good-sized enclosed mall, the first we’ve seen since we’ve arrived in Italy. It ended up being part of a food court. Dad had some kind of a hamburger wrap, and I had a chocolate croissant plus a good-sized coffee with lots of milk. The croissant was not at all like the fresh ones at the local bakeries, but the coffee was like a warm, huge, familiar hug!
Cuneo was a much less grandiose-looking place, even though it is considered to be a HUGE city relative to most others in this area. Our host claims that this is largely because it is so spread out. In fact, he states, it is also known as La Grande. We stopped at the main piazza in the city center. The piazza, like many others we’ve seen, sort of falls asleep during the mid-afternoon hours, but it comes magically to life after 4 P.M. Restaurants typically close for a few hours before dinner anywhere between 6 and 7:30 P.M. Many of the bars stay open, and so do some of the specialty shops, such as bakeries and gelato shops. The stores surrounding the piazza, for the most part, stay open, too. We found Cuneo-specific amaretto “cookies” with and without rum, and marrone glacé (huge Cuneo chestnuts) in a chocolate coating. We bought some for us and for our hosts as a thank you for going so far above and beyond for us. Chestnuts are going to be harvested in October, I hear, and at that time, Cuneo will have a fest to honor the chestnut harvest. The Cuneo chestnut, I.e., the marrone, is much bigger than the typical chestnut, I am told. I can’t wait to taste it tomorrow evening when we have a final dinner as guests of our wonderful hosts! Anyway, this piazza and the roads leading to the piazza seem to be lined with historic palazzos (palaces)—not the glitzy-flamboyant-looking kinds, but rather the multi-room, expansive, multi-floor, large building structures lining the narrow streets and perimeter of the piazza. There is a Cathedral nearby, as well. Lots of shops that are covered overhead, but the outside walkways are not marble-looking as they were in Turin, for example. A much different overall look and feel in this piazza than in many we have seen so far. Posters on the walls and pillars were kind of interesting, however. There seems to be much focus on historical markers in the Italian timeline, I.e., the Resistance, for example. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on literary pursuits/gatherings, I.e., mentions about authors and books/literary works. Announcements about musical productions were posted, I.e., “Madame Butterfly”…. Even announcements about recent deaths among the local community were posted in the piazza, I.e, notification that someone has passed away, the date, time, and place of the funeral,….And even a bit of pageantry, I.e., a small group of young children, dressed in traditional local costume, bearing drums and regional flags…. I personally believe that each of these piazzas in the towns we’ve visited so far have their own distinctive characters. If I lived here, I think I’d be spending way too much time in the piazza, sipping a coffee and licking an artisanal gelato, simply people watching…. We did tour the Cuneo Civic Museum, which is really built upon archeological ruins and within/adjacent to an old St. Francis Church. Dad and I are not really fans of most museums and/or ancient ruins, so we focused on areas of most personal interest to us and moved along….
Dinner was a panini that we brought home. Actually, we assembled the paninis once we got back to our B&B. We do not want to come back home when it is pitch black outside—not to this B&B, which is perched way up on a tall/steep hillside, and because restaurants do not open for dinner until it is close to getting dark or dark already, take-away is really what works best for us. We had picked up Cuneo local favorites to fill the traditional rolls we had found by the piazza. I had Toma del Fra authentic Piemontese cheese, and Dad had a raw (cured/aged) authentic Piemontese prosciutto. Note to Self: Just because a food item is authentic and a regional favorite, I must not assume that I will love it.
PLEASE NOTE: Photo uploads to SmugMug are in arrears right now. That is because internet speed/bandwidth are not cooperating with us where we are staying. Please rest assured that they will be made available as soon as we are able.
Our Travels 