Easter

4/1/18

Easter Day!! And it couldn't be better weather....beautiful clear sky and temperature in the high 60's!! Feels surprisingly un-Eastery. Church bells didn't ring until around 10 something and they were quite restrained. We slept in (thanks, no church bells) and puttered around the apartment til time to go to lunch in Castiglione Falletto  (a town very near Barolo) where the landlady recommended the Easter lunch and, at my request, made a reservation for us a couple weeks ago. Driving to the restaurant we could see the Dolomites for the first time. Yesterday there were clouds on the horizon and we had no idea they were visible.
Beautiful day with the Dolomites in the background

It was a prix fixe Easter lunch and it was fantastic!! And waaay too much but we persevered.
First course: vitello tonnato on left and roasted peppers with anchovy and a creamy type of cheese on right
Second course: asparagus soup with an egg crusted in breadcrumbs with a creamy cheese and crusted fried asparagus on top.
Third course: risotto with tiny shrimp in a lemony sauce
Fourth course: "plin." a local type of filled pasta. This is filled with veal in a deliciously meaty sauce
Fifth course: roasted spring lamb and potatoes served so that you select what you want. We were definitely on tilt by then.
Sixth course: hazelnut semi freddo with caramel sauce on left, vanilla gelato with peaches, chocolate crumbs and crumbled meringue on right
We had a nice bottle of nebbiolo with lunch, of course, And all of this was followed by coffee.
After lunch we drove to the town of Barolo just to say we were there and admired the scenery on the way home.
Castello Falleti in main square in Barolo
Hazelnuts are a major crop. This is a hazelnut orchard. Think Nutella and everything else hazelnut.

Back at the apartment we needed some exercise and made a passegiata (a stroll) in Alba and found another main street and square. There were tons of people out walking, many stores were open, there were balloons being sold on the street, and all in all it appeared like any late Sat. afternoon. We went into a couple of book stores and window shopped and generally enjoyed the melee. It WAS pretty exciting to discover that we had missed a really important street in our town! And that's a wrap for Easter!

Comments

  1. Anne B WrightApril 4, 2018 at 10:36 AM

    Beautiful town — Food (hope you got the recipe for the asparagus soup)

    ReplyDelete

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