Day Five in Northern Italy: Barolo
Rivetto Winery
Driving Back to Italy
Italy-France-Italy-France…Gobble, Gobble
Thanksgiving in Nice
I woke up about 6:30 and eventually went into the bathroom to work on my computer. We made it dawn to breakfast a little after 9 and had our usual except this time Rina made sausages. No one wanted all three of theirs so I wound up eating at least six.
Everyone in the proper place.
My breakfast starter
Rina's delicious persimmon bread.
Waiting for Tim to arrive to plan the day.
I went back up to the room and took a few photos.
View from our room
From the patio (which we never went out on)
Off to the south.
The sitting room
Sue in the sitting room
The back of the house
The group with Tim and Rina
I am actually in this picture
After we packed and loaded the car we all gathered for some last minute photos.
Barolo Valley and Rivetto Vineyard
We left Samaguita at just about exactly 10:30 and headed back into Asti passing the wine bottle, fountain, Esso, and whale roundabouts. We headed southwest toward Alba and made a loop around the Barolo Valley heading first to Serralunga and the Rivetto Vineyard and Winery.
View to Serralunga from Rivetto
We arrived at almost exactly 11:30. Our tour guide was shocked as most people have trouble finding the place or are way late. We began the tour in the bottling and large stainless steel fermentation tanks and storage storage areas and then saw the large casks of the Sovenian wood and the smaller bareques (barrels). Immediately it was clear tht this was a much smaller operation than the first place we went to in Barbaresco.
We tasted a Barbera d' Alba, a Barbaresco and two Barolos. Turns out they are stocked at Bevmo! I still had to buy some. I bought two 2004 Barolos and had Mr. third generation Rivetto sign the bottles. We also bought a whole bunch of their hazelnuts for gifts.
I bought two for these. I will need to save them until at least 2010. For some very special occasion.
Long Drive Through the Alpes Back to Nice
We left at exactly 12:30 and head around the Barolo valley Monforte d' Alba, the town of Barolo, la Morra, Verduno and then to Bra.
Then it was a long haul on local two lane roads to Cuneo and then toward Limone Piedmonte. We had no idea what lay ahead of us. Limone apparently is a ski resort town and we were heading big time up into the Alps. Apparently it had snowed over the past several days as there was quite a lot of snow along the road and up in the mountains.
Soon after we went through a huge tunnel, the Tunnel de Tende that took us back into France.
Tunnel de Tendre
I had no idea that this road would be so steep, so windy, or so long or I'm not sure we would have attempted it. But it sure was beautiful. After being in France we went back into Italy again and and then after getting back on the A8 made it back to France for good.
We stopped and got gas and then we made the final assault on Nice and the Novotel thanks to Tim's Google map.
We had little problem other than we had to make a big loop over the river and behind the Palais de Exposition to get on Gallieni to hit the Novotel entrance going in the right direction. We actually pulled in just a little after five p.m. We checked in and got our luggage that we had stored and Christine and I took the car back.
Making it to the Promised Land
With our map and Christine's amazing driving skills and the knowledge of having been there before, we literally drove right to the Hertz office. I ran in and got instructions from one of the women working there, she came out and checked us in, then we parked it down a rabbit hole, and paid some extra for tax and a second driver and we were done with the car. No problems the whole time. Thank you Lord. it was NOT easy driving for Christine. We took the tram back and were in our room by 5:45. A real miracle.
Thanksgiving in Nice
We decided not to have a huge meal on our last night so I had cancelled our Zucca Magica reservation. Sue and Zoe and I went to look for Thanksgiving sandwiches at the place in Vieux Nice Zoe had bought one earlier.
We found the exact spot where Zoe had gotten her favorite sandwich earlier in the week. He only had two jambon with cheese and tomatoes so he made us two more.
The hardest cookies ever.
Thanksgiving feast.
We were chillin' in the room drinking Dolcetto d'Alba and at about 9:30 Zoe and Sue headed back out to find some fun. Christine and I are the parents. We stayed in.
We leave tomorrow at 7:45, then to Paris, then to Salt Lake City, and finally in to Sacramento around 4 p.m. We will be picked up at the hotel at about 6.
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