After three cities in a row it was time for a change of pace. And, we were looking forward to it.

We arrived at our gorgeous yellow farmhouse after lunch and instantly fell in love with it and the surroundings. Look at that view! There’s neat rows of vineyards, orchards of hazelnut trees and farmhouses, all with the stunning backdrop of the snow covered Alps.

Set on a hilltop amongst vineyards as far as you can see, our beautifully renovated and comfortable farmhouse is perfect. Picture perfect, an ideal place to relax. The weather has been sunny over the last couple of weeks, with occasional cold winds, and we’ve taken every opportunity to be out and about. It’s still early spring and we enjoyed watching the blossoms falling, to be replaced by green leaves.

We took full advantage of our well stocked kitchen and local produce. After eating out for over two weeks, we were ready for good whole food meals. For the naysayers, yes, even I was inspired to create in the kitchen.

The Talpa Tournament continues…..

We have a resident Talpa in the lawn at the farm. It’s a type of mole and every day it tunnels and pops up through the lawn creating mounds of soil. Every day, Jeff rakes the soil back into the lawn. The next day, the mounds are back. He’s very persistent! So is Jeff.

Roddino – our closest village

A quick three minute drive or a 30 minute hike along the roadside of the steep windy road gets us to our closest pretty village. Sitting atop a hill, like most other villages in the area, we were disappointed to find there’s not much there in the way of cafes or groceries, but the views and sights along the way were worth the walk.

Someone had a burst of creative inspiration.

And, a chair for days when you just don’t want to adult.

Monforte d-Alba – our nearest shopping town

A beautiful village with stunning views in all directions. This is the village for groceries, wine and easy lunches.

We had our first lunch in the small town square, complete with a complimentary amuse bouche, but the standout meal was lunch at La Salita.

Getting ready for Easter. Not sure if they have a re-enactment scheduled?

Market Day – Dogliani

One thing we’ve found in our rural area is that English is rarely used by the locals. The housekeeper dropped in and had long conversations with us in very fast Italian as if we could understand every word. Our blank and confused expressions was no deterrent to her enthusiastic one sided conversation.

Every Tuesday morning is market day in the nearby town of Dogliani, a short drive through windy hills. Jeff is really getting the hang of our sporty car.

Lack of English (or more particularly our lack of the Italian language) made market day challenging but also amusing. The homemade salami seller made excellent impersonations of a pig and a wild boar until we understood. Then there was the husband and wife pasta makers where we purchased just the right amount of homemade ravioli after quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with gram amounts suitable for two people. Or the barista who reached across and took the correct money from my hand with a friendly smile because I had no idea what €4.80 sounded like in Italian.

A surprise for us was that every market staller we interacted with made a concerted effort to farewell us with a hearty “goodbye” or “thankyou”. They enjoyed practicing their English as much as we did attempting to communicate in our very basic Italian. It was heartwarming.

We are beginning to feel very at home.

Catherine & Jeff xx