It's Italy Again but It's Springtime

3/31/18 Good thing we didn't have big out of the area plans for the day. We knew there was to be a market here in Alba today but what we didn't know was that it is a GIGANTIC market and it is in every piazza and most of the local streets, causing the streets to be closed to traffic. We were totally stranded if we needed to get out by car! The market has stalls selling ABSOLUTELY everything you can think of. Every type of food, clothing, household goods, tools, plants, toys and anything else you could want was being sold in this market.   We had planned on going to the market for some produce and we easily found a zillion options of each thing we bought (some oranges, strawberries, onions, bell pepper, lemon.) We stopped for a coffee on the way back to the apartment then went out again for a sandwich for lunch from the salumeria. My sandwich was porchetta and Dick's was a boring salami. Both were excellent. We went back out in the giant crowd to visit th...

3/30/18 The plan for today was to do laundry and explore Alba. Success on both fronts! We got the first load of laundry in the machine and headed out. Alba is a small enough town that it can easily be covered walking. We are on the main pedestrian street (see post from yesterday for pic) and after going to where there was supposed to be a tourist info office per the map (not there), we walked the pedestrian street into the main square (the square of the duomo of course) and there was the tourist information office. A rather simple duomo We picked up some maps and brochures and continued meandering around the town. There is food of all sorts everywhere you look! All very tempting to try everything but reason prevailed. After coming back to take care of the first load of laundry and to start the second, we went to lunch at Osteria del Vecchio Gallo (osteria of the old rooster.) It's a very small restaurant that was very nice and we had a really excellent lunch. We first disc...

Wed 3/28/18 No sun this morning but at least it's not raining....yet. We again took the train into Genoa to go to the aquarium which is the largest in Italy and the second largest in Europe. We are totally spoiled by the Monterey Aquarium but this one is quite impressive and has some species that I don't recall seeing in Monterey.                                                  Octopus hiding Moray eel Port of Genoa We spent an enjoyable couple of hours then found an osteria where we had an unexceptional but adequate lunch that was late enough that we snacked on leftovers for dinner. Thu 3/29/18 Moving day! We packed up and our hosts came to tell us goodbye. We chatted for quite a while with them then they gave us a very nice Italian cookbook (in English) as a "thank you for staying with us" gift. Our first order of business was to go t...

Tues 3/26/18 Today we had scheduled a guided walk of Genoa and we had another beautiful sunny day with a very cold start to it.  Our landlady drove us to the train station so that we wouldn't have the trauma of trying to find parking and we took the train into Genoa where we met our guide, Anna,  at the station. The walking tour was to be 3 hours but we spent almost 4 1/2 totally enjoyable hours with Anna who was incredibly knowledgeable and personable. In addition to seeing lots of important sights, we stopped for fresh focaccia where the baker insisted on giving us extra pieces so that we all could taste the onion one....delicious and the best onions ever!! Then we stopped for coffee at a "bar" that was founded at the end of the 19th century and has been continuously in business since then. Our guide on the far right Genoa has a large medieval center and there are 42 palazzos both in and around the medieval center which have been named UNESCO world heritage ...

Mon 3/26/18 Another beautiful, sunny day with a cold start but a promise of some warmth to come. We headed out for another try at Camogli. No crowds, plentiful parking and blue skies showed real promise of success. It IS a beautiful little town and the sun made walking a pleasure. The walk along the ocean is a bit touristy but there were very few of us tourists enjoying the views. We walked along the promenade and found the ferry ticket office which was closed but a helpful coast guard officer pointed out a man sitting nearby that we were told was the captain of the ferry. Unfortunately, he wouldn't operate until 3 PM and we were there at 11 with not much of anything to occupy us for the next 4 hours so that ended the idea of visiting the nearby abbey by ferry. Plan B involved driving in the direction of Genoa along the coast where we enjoyed the views of the ocean and the gorgeous villas. Then we turned inland in the direction of home and took a route through the moun...

Sun Mar 25 Yesterday we woke to gray, heavy skies but decided to go along the coast west of Genoa and just hope that it wouldn't rain too much. Our hopes were dashed as a moderate and continuous rain began before we even reached Genoa but we soldiered on along the coastal towns that clearly would be a great hit in warm weather. The rain was heavy enough that we didn't even get out of the car though we could appreciate some nice ocean views along the way. We gave up and returned to Busalla after taking a turn onto the wrong autostrada that required about another 25 miles of driving. We decided to have lunch in Busalla and found a small restaurant nearby that is also a wine shop. It holds about 20 customers total but was quite nice inside. We were brought an amuse bouche of some fries that looked like French fries but were made from chickpea flour and were delicious! Lunch for Dick was tortelli stuffed with potato and cream in a pesto sauce with pine nuts. I had tagliarini (a ...

Friday 3/23/18 We had the usual long but uneventful flight (Tues, arriving Wed) with very little sleep and arrived in our usual exhausted state to our hotel near Linate airport. View of the Alps from the plane We had a dinner in the hotel restaurant (a decent pasta Bolognese for Dick and a risotto Milanese for me) and managed to stay awake until 9 PM. Had the usual night of a few hours sleep and a lot of awake time before we gave up and got up at 6:30. We had some breakfast at the hotel then went to the airport to pick up our rental car, return to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head out.  We managed to do the usual "miss a vital turn, spend way too much time recovering from it and waste a lot of special language in the process" and then we drove to our new home in the hamlet of Mignanego near Genoa. Did the orientation to our place, unpacked and went out for a little exploration of the town of Busalla, near us which is also the place for any type of sho...