Summary
Raffaella made us a delicious frittata for breakfast with vegetables we’d cooked last night. Said goodbye to the lovely couple from San Diego and then to Raffaella and headed north. We left the hilly, wine-making part of the Piedmont region and entered the flat rice producing area. Picnic lunch in a shady courtyard in Cella Monte then on to Vercelli for two nights. Our large room had a balcony overlooking the main town square with arcades on all four sides. Took a long walk then had a delicious dinner at one of the several restaurants on the square.
Details
Today’s our last wonderful breakfast at our Agrotourisma in Barelo. Karen’s made an even bigger bowl of sautéed veggies and ham to be combined into our omelette. As usual all is delicious. Back at the room we finish packing.
We have one last talk with Peter and Laura from San Diego. They’ve been here one day longer than we, but all the Americans are heading out today. They’re on their way to Turin. Raffaella will have a quiet Agroturismo for a bit (or maybe there’s another band of crazies driving this way right now).
We ask and Raffaella suggests where we should stop on our way to Vercelli. She’s a big fan of where we’re going and the cities along the way. She’s really a big fan of this corner of Italy generally. She’s also a winemaker and we buy from her a 2019 bottle. (“You do know it’s 58 euros, yes?”) On her computer we show her our blog. She has known the expression Dolce Far Niente forever and so quickly gets our blog title’s Italian play on words. We show her a picture of herself and others, and the nice things we said about her (and her helpers and her place). She’s verklempt. Hugs all around.
It’s a one hour drive to Cella Monte. For a while we don’t see any grape vines. Are we done with that crop for a while? Soon they’re back. We follow our GPS into town, hoping to find parking. The streets get less and less wide and we consider folding in the mirrors. Going downhill a car comes the other way. I am required to back up hill and pull over. The car goes by and I turn around, enough of this.
We park and walk. We’re trying to puzzle out an information sign when a man walks by. He starts talking to us in Italian. English? we ask in our best Italian. “A little… follow me…” He guides us to a different information sign. HA! He says. His face says “See! I told you!”
This sign (still in Italian) shows how this area, a million years ago, was beachfront property. Over time the sand compressed and made sandstone. As such, when locals (years ago) started digging they found it was easy to make wine cellars (with really good/cheap temperature control). The walls could easily have built-in shelves for the wine. Thus, this is a good place to buy wine (and to tour interesting old wine cellars).
We thank the man. He insists on a smile and a firm handshake from each and he’s on his way. Just then an elderly, frail woman, carrying two big crates of tomato and squash plants, noses in. She’s Italian and local but speaks good English. She tells us how we should ask for a tour ‘over there’, across the street. Due to her heavy load she can’t really point. We do find someone ‘over there’ but they’re totally busy now, it’s recommended that we come back on the weekend. (That’s not going to happen.)
Further into town we find the communal center with its courtyard that’s dropdead gorgeous and has an amazing view for miles. Our arms are full of our picnic lunch so we plop down on a nearby bench and eat. It’s super. For most of the time it’s just the two of us. On the way out we see some wine storage caves dug down into the sandstone. Very cool. There’s a “Please keep your asses out of here” sign, but we certainly could look in.
As we get closer to Vercelli we message our hostess to let her know when we’ll be arriving. She meets us and gives us the rundown of our place. It’s big, quiet and nice. Our balcony overlooks the town’s main social square. There are two chairs and a little table out there, what more could we need?
Bags dropped we walk around the big square. It looks dead, but that’s just because it’s during their siesta/long lunch. It’ll come back to life after 2 pm. We have a beer and a bottle of water on the far side of the square. After that we continue our walk.
At one point I see a courtyard that we can go into. Maybe this is the base of the impressive tower near our main square. Yes it is, but it’s locked. Just then a man comes out of his apartment. He insists that he unlock it and let us hike up. So nice! He has six keys and doesn’t know which is the right one. He has to try each twice and hold his mouth just so. Once in he ensure’s we know how to get out (press this button), and even then he leaves the door ajar so we’re not stuck.
After we hike up and back down we leave the tower just to find we’re now stuck inside the courtyard, behind the big metal gates. There’s no button we can see. We puzzle with this for a while before the same gentleman comes back in and uses his remote to open the gate to let us out. He does point out a button we missed, around the corner.
We continue our walk, through an arch and into the old fish market square. Much of the city is in excellent repair. We find a big pastry store with gorgeous products, each one impeccably made. Alas we’re full.
We see the biggest, most amazing synagogue. Military presence nearby sadly brings us back to remembering the time in which we live. It’s required. We do more walking and see more piazzas, more towers, and more churches.
Come to the ring road and green circle around the (old?) city. The green is made by two parallel rows of trees and between them lanes for two directions of bike traffic and one of pedestrian traffic. It’s lovely and we see people out walking, moms with strollers, grandparents laughing with a grandchild. What a great community. What we don’t see here? Americans.
For dinner we get gussied up and walk across the piazza to Amarcord restaurant, recommended by our hostess here. We have a great meal and love everything we order. We get a great bottle of white Sancerre (French), sorry Italy.
Alas, at dinner Karen juggles her knife and spreads a goodly amount of hollandaise with yuzu on her shirt. Whoops! The restaurant has some “dry cleaner in a can” which makes Karen feel better (but doesn’t really do anything worthwhile for the shirt).
We carry the unconsumed 1/2 of our wine bottle back to the room for tomorrow. At 9:30 it’s still quite light out.
Photos
