Moving day.  Not my favorite but you gotta do it if you want to go somewhere else, right?

We had decided already to take a cab to the Europcar offices so I called them well in advance.  Good thing because it started raining. Lyn and Anthony met us there, and after a longish wait we got our somewhat banged up VW Golf station wagon.  It is just big enough for all of our luggage and us.  The drive from Tuscany, along the coast through Liguria and Genoa and finally up into Piedmont was uneventful and we didn’t even stop.  It rained on and off the whole way.

We passed by plenty of vineyards.  The harvest is just about over, but we did see some gorgeous dark purple grapes hanging from the vines.  The Vines are beginning to change to their fall colors as are some of the trees.  Sometimes the landscape reminded me of North Carolina.

Corte Condina, in La Morra, will be our wine country base for 4 nights.  Right after checking in we took a  walk through the little town (our hotel is just on the edge of it) and stopped in a bar for a quick coffee.  Anthony had a glass of the local white–Arneis.  At the top of the hill is a view spot:

Anthony perused the wine store:

These shelves are all Barolos.

And we stopped in the Cantina Comunale for a taste of 3 reds.

Dinner was at Osteria Veglio in Annunziata, just a less than 10 minute drive from here.  Beautiful room and great Piemontese food!  We started with a complementary amuse which was insalata Russa which is, put simply, potato salad.  I went for the big splurge and ordered tajarin (local, fresh spaghetti like pasta) with butter and white truffles.  They had one large (baseball size) truffle under a glass dome at the service table at the end of the dining room.  When my dish arrived it was just the pasta and butter.  Then the waiter came with the truffle and shaved its earthy loveliness on top. This was the first time having white truffle for me.  It has the same basic flavor as the black but it is much more perfumed and complex.  In short, I swooned.  We all shared a lot of dishes.  The standouts were the agnolotti al plin (local ravioli) with a meat gravy sauce and the cabbage stuffed with a very simple veal sausage.  Best dish (truffles not withstanding) was the dessert of chocolate pudding with a caramel sauce and some crunchiness–maybe amaretti.  They also gave us some fantastic meringue sandwich cookies with cold whipped cream in the center.  And I drank a glass of the Barolo chinato liqueur.  A memorable meal!

We came right upstairs after dinner and passed out, though Ken got up to watch the debate on his ipad at 3 am, and couldn’t get back to sleep afterward for all the agita it caused.