Off to Piedmont For Some Barolo

Susan, Doug, Ken and Sarah arrived safely in Torino on Thursday after a full day in Milan. We didn't have much time to find a place for dinner that night so we ended up at a local pizza joint with a pirate motif. Why pirates and pizza go together I don't know but the food was good and we got our complimentary lemoncello after the meal.

It was an early start to the day as we were heading out to the Piedmont area to sample excellent Barberas, Barolos and Nebbiolas. We picked up the rental car and headed south of Torino to Asti. We missed the freeway turnoff so we were relegated to the backroads. At least we avoided the tolls on the way.

We quickly headed from Asti to Alba and were rewarded with some lovely towns and some great wineries.

We went to a lovely vineyard where the owners gave us a tasting and tour of their vineyard. The name was Cascina Longoria and their wines were all excellent and at a very reasonable price. We left with 8 bottles between us. The wines are featured in the shot above. The owner was named Carlo and he gave Ken some of his grapes for the ride.

After our stop at Cascina Longoria we went on to Grinzane Favour, Barolo and La Morra. More wine tasting and more great wine purchased + grappa!! It was a wine lover's dream.

  

It was getting late and unfortunately it was time to head back to Torino. It was the direct route on the autostrada to get back but still it was dark when we made it back to town. We filled up the rental car, dropped it off and wandered the streets of Torino with 13 bottles of wine to find dinner.

It was time to get home as we had the long journey from Torino to Arles in the morning.