Since it has been so hot in the afternoons we decided to try for an earlier start and visit Asti. We parked in the triangle shaped Piazza Alfiera, right near the Information office where they gave us a great little map and, of course, some restaurant locations. Off we went walking through the pedestrian streets of the old city. Barsolino is an old and famous hat maker located there:

Asti is a very pretty town with colorful banners flying everywhere (Palio connection?) and lots of flowers. We walked all over the place, window shopping, and menu shopping. We finally settled on L’angolo di Beato–mentioned in Slow Food and lots of other guide books. We all shared a colatello (like proscuitto) and melon appetizer and each got a pasta. Mine was orrechiete with chard and lots of olive oil. David was adventurous and ordered a sauce with rabbit liver. We had fun talking for a long time to the owner’s son who had been to the US 2 years ago on his honey moon.
Here’s Cec and me in Asti:

We had a nice relaxing afternoon around the pool, reading, dozing and playing cards.