North Italy - Asti, Barolo, Barbaresco

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Asti
I spent time in the morning before leaving Venice, I walked by a glass sculpture about 5 times before I decided I just can’t justify the cost and the hassle of carrying it home. Sigh. I will forget about it some day… and then headed to the train station to be sure I was understanding my travel details. Without belaboring the point, I do not understand why they advised I take such a late train to Bologna (there were several that left earlier!) although there was a comment, if I understood it properly, about a train strike. I managed to get on the right train, transfer to the next correct train but had to share a tiny space with 5 people and one older gentleman who alternated between snoring or singing along to his iPod. That part was a little funny. Unfortunately they did not announce the train stops at all and any announcements were only in Italian so I had to time my stop. Successfully reaching Asti, and then successfully navigating some confusing streets, I found the car rental place. After some embarrassment with readjusting to a manual transmission again, I managed to get a teensy bit lost. Yes again. Seriously though - do you know how hard it is to try to read a teeny tiny map, while avoiding people, other cars, figuring out new driving rules and while also reading instructions that were like this” go through the second roundabout and look for the roundabout with the rusted fish. At the fish take a right and go straight through the glass roundabout” - and so on. (Actually it turns out those were the most helpful way to actually figure out if I was on the right path). So while you may laugh that I got lost again (just wait until you read the rest), I am actually quite proud of myself for being able to get myself back on the right path and find where I am supposed to go.

I arrived at the B&B quite tired and ready to relax. It was serendipitous timing on my part to pick a weekend where the hosts also had old friends staying with them because not only did they welcome me with wine from their own vines, but I was also invited to dinner with everyone- a delicious 4 course meal. Also I had a big huge room and a bathtub!!! (I had mostly shower stalls in other places or no leisure time for a bath which can feel like a real luxury).

OK how to sum up the following 3-4 days? I will do my best but this will be a long blog. Day 1 - a day of frustration and being quite lost. I started off with directions to go meet a vineyard owner my host insisted would be a great contact and good wines - but I took several wrong turns and ended up getting there too late. What a terrible disappointment and being upset I also skipped the recommended restaurant as I was far from being hungry. I started to follow the rest of the itinerary for the day. I was headed to a beautiful church that was one where one of those big important kings from somewhere was saved and said he would build a church on that spot and so he did - it is apparently impressive.. And the road was washed out by a landslide. I was driving up the twisty roads and it suddenly seem to run straight in to a hill. Unbelievable. So I turn around and find a side road to continue on my trail. I found my enoteca- and it was closed. AAARRRGGHHHH!!!!!! At this point I was tired, frustrated and unhappy so went to the only place I knew which was back to the room. After a short break, I went in to town to the big market where they closed off most of the roads in the shopping district. It was interesting - it was crowded and festive and they were selling everything (from undergarments to rugs). I tried to go to a restaurant that was recommended and… you guessed it - CLOSED! I was too early - they don‘t even OPEN until 7 pm and I was NOT in the mood to wait. In my frustration I bought a bottle of Barolo from a local shop (what a rip off, it was not very good), took it back to the B&B, popped it open and brought it with me to the bath. It was an interesting but not a successful day.

My second full day in Asti I headed to Barolo. It was the main goal of my Asti stay. This day was a most splendiferous success!!! I followed a scenic route and it was stunning. Tim, the host of the Villa, planned it so I was driving around the edges of the valley - started down one side, stopped in Barolo and drove back up the other side. It was gorgeous and just full of vineyards and I loved it. When I arrived in Barolo - the next bit of amazement took place… I found a parking spot with only a small effort and get this - I successfully parallel parked, (and a left hand side also) on my first try!!!!! If you know me, you know that is an amazing feat. It was a sign that the day would be good. And indeed it was. I had an amazing lunch with good wine, then went to the corkscrew museum which was great fun. Then to the wine museum which was THE BEST!!! It is a kitschy and amusing place, quite different from a “typical” museum. It was more like a full art display in motion and all about wine!!

Ah, the museum- how do I describe it.. Words won’t do it justice. First of all it is in a castle. Basically it is the story of wine from how it is grown and made and then covers the history of wine in the world. The first room was illustrating that time is what its needed for wine in so many aspects (the history, growing, aging, etc) - so you walk in the room and there are glowing clocks with wings hanging from the walls in a dark room. I’m not kidding. In another room were squiggly things hanging from a ceiling and a big screen in the ceiling showing images of the vineyard owner/workers pruning the vines -so the squiggly bits were the roots of the vines and you were looking up as from under the dirt. Cute!! Another room you get on a bench and you peddled around in a circle that would then illuminate the different seasons and the life cycle of the vines. In the history room were kitschy little recreations of scenes and on one side, you stepped on a peddle and twirled a handle or pulled a pulley that pulled aside a current and animated the little display inside. I personally loved it. I think other people didn’t care for it but they just walked on through but the rest of us giggled and smiled our way through the building - you start on the 3rd floor and work your way down. You end up in the enoteca in the basement of the castle- where you can taste Barolo’s and of course I did exactly that. BTW, this castle was also once occupied by the Marchesi (if I am getting this correct) who was considered the one who started the modern day Barolo - making it the hearty and intense wine that it is (and if done traditionally should be aged no less than 10 years although the modern style certainly does not stick to this).

My next stops I will sum up more quickly - I went to two other places to taste Barolo’s, purchasing a bottle from a local producer, bought some hazlenuts from a farm stand and breadsticks from the tasting room of the last place and on I went. The drive back was equally beautiful and it was a great day.

The next day started off poorly with another missed meeting (same guy!!) but I will leave that be because the afternoon I headed to Barbaresco. Another scenic route and a cute town. The Enoteca Nacional is actually in an old restored church! So yes I went to church to drink wine - and I sampled at least 5 here, purchasing one. I headed up towards the tower and stopped in to a place that had a stunning view. A few more samples here. Wish I could have stayed longer, it was very pretty but I knew I had to move on. I was considering a Grappa tasting up the road at the distillery and places close by 6. I went back to another little tiny place and it was very nice because the woman there (it was her family’s winery) spoke not a bit of English and me with no Italian but we managed to sit down and somehow have a conversation while I tasted her wines. Unfortunately they were not the best I had that day but I bought a bottle anyway because she was just so gracious. Unbelievable how much we learned about each other with little bits of Italian from me and English from her and a big of sign language and gesturing. It’s how I knew it was her family’s winery, that they do not export to the US, it was still small production and her son was in charge and they recently were given a big award or accolades at a local wine tasting. I told her about my aspirations and goals, where I was from and where I was going. It was quite nice.
I missed the distillery on the way out (it was closed) but did manage to get in to one last place as they were closing for the day Francone wines. Another example of the wonderful people and hospitality here and in wine country. The man at the tasting room was the son of the owner and he was the actual enologist for the wines - he and his brother. They believed it was important for the enologist to work in the tasting rooms to talk about their wines with knowledge. He was super gracious and let me stay past closing hours to not only pour me their wines but a little extra as well. We sat over wine and hazelnuts and breadsticks and had a great conversation. I am certainly hoping I can somehow manage to bring some of those wines in to my wine bar. It also helped that he was terribly cute and liked NY 😊. So I bought a couple of bottles here too - one of their sparkling wines (Muscat d’Asti) as I found it light and refreshing and a Barbaresco.

On my way home, my intention was to stop in Alba but it was a market day or something and very full. Parking was not to be found and at one point I said “ok, it’s either a parking spot or a sign for Asti, whichever comes first is what happens” so Asti it was, and I was more than ok with that.

So you may wonder about all those wines I bought. I had no room in my suitcase and no intention of lugging them along for another several weeks - at least one was meant to be a gift for my hosts to enjoy at their leisure for inviting me to join their meals because that was NOT a part of the deal and I was so grateful to have home cooked meals after eating at restaurants constantly before this. I meant to open at least 2 bottles with dinner. Well - we ended up opening all of them… and we had a rip-roaring great time! We had a ton of fun this night - all of us sitting around, loving those wines (I personally thought I picked some pretty delicious examples of the areas) and Tim actually has thanked me several times for bringing him a new Barolo that he likes as he considers himself to be quite picky (he has had the luxury of sampling many Barolo’s of course). I was quite pleased with this.

Now the bad part… I had to travel the next day. Suffice it to say, I had wished we did not open that 3rd.. Or was it the 4th? Or was it more?.. bottle of wine. I am glad to have had that wonderful time and both Tim and Rina said they were happy for such a fun evening but boy I was not so happy when I was driving my way to the Turino airport -fortunately it was very easy (except for understanding the rental return but lets not get in to that). I obviously made it through and I feel that I literally WILLED myself to feel better before getting on that plane. Water water water - always the best idea. And an advil or two. Or three.

I may as well finish the rest of the travel bit - the flight was a piece of cake, and it was FAR easier to find the bus in the Frankfurt airport than I was afraid it would be. I found it no problemo, found a decent seat and got comfy. Except for the jerk of a taxi driver in Strasbourg, this turned out to be a much easier traveling day than my poor hurting head anticipated.

Ah Italy- I love you. This is 3 trips there now and yes I will go back. I think I need to visit my hosts again and go back to those lovely villages and go to the ones I could not fit in to one trip. Perhaps I will hire a driver next time 😊.

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Photos

Barolo vines
Vineyards as far as the eye could see :).

Vineyards
It was just beautiful

Barolo
Facing down a street looking at the castle.

Corkscrew museum
Just an example of some of the funky old corkscrews. See the brush on some? to dust off the bottle.

Wine museum display
This cracked me up!! Adam and Even with wine.

Wine museum again
How funny is this??? this was a small display, you pulled a lever and stepped on a pedal to see the old wine god.

wine museum
The big book on the right is actually a screen, it would change pages.

Castle enoteca
Here is part of the nice enoteca in the basement of castle/wine museum

Tasting Barolos
In the wine museum/castle enoteca

Barbaresco
Nice buildings.

Barbaresco church wine bar
This was the Enoteca nacionale in a church!! See that ceiling? beautfiul.