Breakfast was outside in the 'Vine Garden (Jardin dei Vini)." It was a beautiful, sunny day and the setting was perfect. It turns out that the other couple staying here is from California (Huntington Beach). She is a real talker......so we learned more than we wanted to know! That being said, they are very interesting travelers. This is their 50th Anniversary soujourn. They were staying outside of Moniglio, which is just south of Portofino. We visited this town three years ago to find an amazing restaurant that had been written up by Forbes as the top restaurant in the world. They had just been there and had some funny comments to offer.
They are here for four days and then headed north to Switzerland (Murren) and over to Chamonix and back to Lake Como before leaving from Milano. We pretty much just listened......as they did not ask much about us! Nonetheless, nice folks having a really fun time.
After breakfast we caught up on a few things and then headed out on our excursion for the day, which was planned to be a four hour circular route through the Barolo region. The actual appellation zone is fairly small, but the landscape and road systems are quite something! We pretty much stuck to our plan, although got lost at least 3 or 4 times in the morning! We ended up at La Morra for lunch, which was just what we had planned.
La Morra is a wonderful hill town with amazing views. We parked (luckily found a space) and walked around, not sure where we were headed other than uphill! Close to the main Centro Storico and the Piazza, we found one of the restaurants listed in Denise's guides. It was called Uve, and it just opened its doors (and beautiful courtyard) at 12:30. We were the second couple seated, and within 10 minutes all the other tables (maybe 10) were filled! It was clearly a popular destination.
Our lunch was perfect. We each had varying plates of charcuterie and local cheeses with a glass of rose. Everything was great........and the local meats were amazing, particularly the thinly sliced raw bacon which had been marinated in wine for a week! and they recommended we put fresh chestnut honey and hazlenuts on everything! WOW.....
The trip back included a nice stop in the actual village of Barolo. We had a nice walk and visit to an Enoteca.......and a famous grissini store there. Fun on all fronts!
This all allowed us to get back to the hotel by 4:00 in time for some relaxation by the pool for an hour or two.
As we headed down for dinner at 8:00 we walked out into a rain shower. We grabbed the umbrella, but 3 minutes later the shower had seemed to pass. We were the first to the dining room, but were shortly followed by the 'anniversary' couple and another pair from the U.S. It is understandable, but still a bit frustrating to dig this deep into Italy and find this demographic at dinner! We went out of our way to plead with the waiter to only talk to us in italian! Both he and Denise were very understanding.
We were also getting a kick out of the reproduction of a Botticelli painting in the dining room. That guy had a good thing going with his lady friends.......or rather nymphs and satyrs!
We also explained that we could not possibly eat so much tonight. They helped us order an antipasto, which we split, as well as two local pastas. It was all amazing. We also settled on a local Langhe rose, which was both reasonable and perfect for the meal.
We had talked with Denise in the morning about possibly being able to eat dinner out in the terrace tonight.......but the rain put a damper on that. We actually had a few rumbles of thunder. That being the case, we were surprised when Denise asked us if we wanted to eat outdoors. We had already been seated in the dining room at a nice table by the window, so we declined. She said we should really think about 'taking the dolce and caffe' outside after dinner. We did just that.
It was one of those unexpected pleasures. We were the only ones there and they had started a fire in the outdoor fireplace. All the candles were lit and the moon was shining brightly. It was incredible, with the fountain trickling in the background. We had an outrageously decadent chocolate dessert.......and Denise personally brought out after dinner drinks for us, complimentary! A Barolo Chinato which is an after-dinner digestivo from the Piedmont region, made with Barolo wine that has been steeped with different spices such as cinnamon, coriander, mint, and vanilla. She also served us a local Passito. Passito is dessert wine made by pressing partially dried grapes, dried to concentrate their sugar and flavor. Both were wonderful!
This final 'episode' of the evening......the sound of the fountain........the smell of the wood fire.......the wonderful dessert and after dinner drinks......all so private by ourselves on the terrace.....was quite special.