Summary
Today’s breakfast buffet was amazing … a huge and beautiful array of homemade cakes and breads, jams and spreads, fresh fruit juice and an honest-to-god chocolate fountain! Wandered around an enormous meat, cheese, fruit, vegetable, clothing and household item market then did a self-guided walking tour of old Asti. It’s a lovely town built largely of red brick in the 12th to 14th centuries. Al fresco lunch then drove into the countryside to our next lodging. The view from our balcony was really eye popping – vivid green, vine covered hills, medieval hill towns, and off in the distance, 180° panorama of snow capped Alps. The weather had finally turned gorgeous so we spent the afternoon poolside and had dinner on our balcony.
Details
When we rise it’s 7 am and in the closed room it’s over 77°. No wonder I didn’t sleep well. Out our window it’s a bit foggy but the weather forecast is for bright sunshine and blue skies. It’ll be a nice change.
We read about Asti. 75,000 people, so pretty good sized but not too big. The name comes from Ast, in old Celtic, meaning ‘hill’ and it is hilly here. We’re on the fertile plane of the Tanaro River. People have lived here since the Neolithic period, we read.
We ready ourselves for the day. In the bathroom there are lots of soaps and accessories on offer. One is a pump-spray bottle of “intimate detergent”. Another is air freshener, in Mojito flavor. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
We finish packing and head down to breakfast. The spread is out of this world. The same manager lady who had been so helpful last night is here, directing everything. She gives us a tour of what’s on offer. It’s all pretty crazy.
They have lots of normal breakfast stuff, but whatever they have, they have many different types of. Butter? Three varietiesn (plus margarine). Lots of pies and tarts. If that’s not enough sweet for you, there’s a working chocolate fountain to dip whatever into. I’m happy to see some veggies for breakfast: cucumber, caprese salad, and shaved fennel. All very fresh, I take big portions.
Full and now with luggage in hand we head downstairs to check out. We didn’t finish the big glasses of wine they comp’ed us so it’s consolidated it into an empty plastic water bottle. We packed up the bowl of fruit and chocolates they gave us. We squeezed in the bottle of Barbera d’Asti they gave us. We’re ready to check out.
“Here, these are for you” says the male desk clerk as he hands us a package of homemade cookies. “Your room’s paid for so you only owe the city tax”. We say that’s not right and tell him our room number. Ah yes, we do owe for the room. Maybe also these cookies are for someone else? No, they’re for you. So nice.
We load up the car but don’t want to now leave it in the same spot in case someone was watching (how’s that for a paranoid American mindset). We relocate the car over to the triangular square nearby. We can’t tell where they run the Palio here in Asti but we don’t think this square (er, triangle) is big enough.
Back in the huge parking lot where the International Food Fair is going on now there is a big outdoor market. It’s Saturday and sunny. The parking lot is truly big. The food fair is good sized but only takes up maybe 10%. This market takes up another 60%. Most of the vendors are there in vans and most of those have automated umbrellas that open up to give a big footprint of protection from the rain, or today from the sun.
At the market, on the perimeter on one side, they have the typical meats, cheeses, breads, cookies, and lots of prepared foods. On the far side they have the produce. So much produce and it’s all beautiful and fresh. In the middle? Clothes, hardware, household goods, shoes, and on and on. If it exists it’s for sale here.
Quite a number of booths have a sign that says “Merce Usata” (Used goods). They’re have another sign that says “Solo 1.00” (only 1 euro). On the table is a mountain of colorful shirts or skirts or whatever. Everyone picking through all of the stuff. It’s quite the show. The higher end Merce Usata is 3 or 5 euros and that’s for shorts or pants or jackets.
We buy nothing but continue on to our next task: a walking tour of the city. We’re following a route in an app (Visorando) on our iPhone. The path takes us to different piazzas, churches and interesting old buildings. We read about one fascinating building after another. So many towers. And so old. Around one corner we come across a church they want us to see. Holy crap, we both say, this thing is monstrous! On one side is a sundial, but it’s busted. I corrupt the old saying and come up with “even a broken sundial is right once a day”.
We stop for a light, healthy lunch. Karen has enough bresaola (dried beef) and arugula to have for lunch and dinner.
Back in the car we enter the coordinates for tonight’s hotel, an Agrotourisma spot not far from the village of Barbaresco. The closer we get the more gorgeous the views become. There are no end of healthy vineyards all around. These are not cheap wines. In the distance, in every direction, we realize we’re seeing the snowcapped Alps. At our highest point we guess that the alps are visible in 180 degrees, probably more. This’ll do.
Our room is more than adequate (though not over the top). We do have a big balcony overlooking pretty much everything. Judging from the plan on the door, and our view of the other rooms, from our balcony, get gather we’re in the nicest room in the place. Not bad for booking 18 hours earlier. We change into swim togs and hang out at the pool. It’s heated only by the sun and nights here are now in the low 40s, so it is ‘invigorating’. I’m able to get in all the way to my knees though many of the Europeans here get all the way in.
For dinner we order one primi and one secondi and plan to have them in our room. I’m happy to carry them from the restaurant but they can easily judge my age and tell me they’ll be happy to bring it over when it’s ready. We move the collapsable luggage stand out to the balcony and that’s where our dinner tray ends up. That dinner, plus Karen’s leftovers from lunch, and our bottle of red wine makes for a perfect dinner. The view the whole time is crazy nice. I’m happy I screwed up our hotel reservation in Asti!
Photos
