Last night we had a 6 course dinner that left me too stuffed to type. The restaurants typical of this area have a set dinner where you don’t know the number of courses ahead of you or the food to expect. I suppose they do this because if you know how much you were supposed to consume, you would run the other way. We ate form 8pm-10:30, our plates heaped with specialties of the house. It was marvelous.

It is called Trattoria dell’Amicizia and serves “Cucina tipica Langarola” their telephone number is +39 0173 79131 and they are located in Roddino. Go hungry!

This morning we awoke, still full, but enjoyed the breakfast of our agrotourismo with homemade grape jam and hazelnuts. Shortly there after, we toured the production facilities and learned all about the wines from the Rivetto Family.

A short summery follows:

Since 1902 the Rivetto family has been growing grapes and producing Barbera, Barbaresco and Barolo wines. They recently began to do a white wine called Rivetto Languhe Bianco and like all of the wines here,each harvest is named affectionately for a family member.

All of their grapes are picked by hand and the only pesticide used is copper, sprayed on and gives the posts a blue hue. The wine is aged in cork, no sugar is added and the bottles are corked with natural cork form Spain or Portugal.

If you come across this make of wine, the best years to try are 1996-7, 2003 and 2007-8. Avoid 2002, apparently it was bust. We had a tasting and were very impressed! The owner, papa, gave me a tomato from his garden and wished me ‘salute’ or health.

Later, we also explored some hikes that went from town to town through vineyards. The trails are not marked too clearly (look for parallel red and white lines) but the views are worth it. We ate lunch (after walking one hour up hill, and then retracing our steps) at a nice place one of the very few still open at 4pm called Locanda della Posta di Baraolo e Enoteca in Camere—Cuena and they had delicious cantaloupe and tasty pasta.

James is coming tonight and we will sleep on cots outside, I am excited!