Market day

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 the tourist office again for some information and I got a gelato. In addition to the market, there was a demonstration with picketers in the main square demonstrating to prevent animal cruelty complete with a microphone and a lot of yelling.
We also decided to visit the duomo which is very, very plain on the outside but really quite nice inside.
When the market ended we took a drive down into Barolo country to find the place where we have lunch reservations tomorrow (Easter.) This was our first view of the vineyards of the area. It's beautiful despite that the vines are bare still.

We picked up a few groceries on the way home and made some pasta for dinner. A nice laid back day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Trip is Ending

Image
Tues 4/10- Fri 4/13/18 I still had in mind a visit to Varenna so we set out to first visit Dongo, site of Mussolini's capture and execution, and the plan was then to take the ferry from Menaggio to Varenna. The weather was pleasant though the forecast was for showers later and off we went to Dongo which is a bit further north on the lakeshore. There is a WWII museum in Dongo dedicated to the events surrounding the Mussolini capture that I wanted to visit though Dick was less than enthusiastic. The drive up the lakeside was beautiful with the distant Dolomites with their snow visible for the first time in a few days and we arrived in Dongo without incident and somewhat accidentally pulled into a parking lot that turned out to be the site of the museum. The museum was a strange little place of multiple small rooms separated by heavy drapes with each room with some sort of audio visual display. This part of north Italy was a very active partisan position and it's not someth...
Read more

On to Lake Como

Image
4/5/18 All packed and ready to go but we wanted to hit the farmer's market in Alba one last time even though we weren't going to buy anything that we had to haul with us. It's just fun wandering through the market and seeing what is there. Eels....ugly looking things Selling artichokes is easier if you trim them so nicely The drive to Dizzasco, our new place near Lake Como was just slightly complicated by a wrong turn and then not being able to find the place without stopping twice to ask for help. Our lodging is a 2 story house on the property of the owners plant nursery. There are two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and a kitchen and living-dining area upstairs so we're again in a place with lots of room to spread out. View from bedroom Living area Bathroom Bedroom Second bedroom being used to store cushions for outdoor furniture Kitchen/dining area We arrived around 3 so we had little time for anything other than the grocer...
Read more

A day in Alba

Image
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...
Read more