We finally made it to our first real home in Italy! We have to pinch ourselves to make sure we don't wake up! Our town for the next year or so is Neive. It is one of the 3 Barbaresco DOCG villages (so if they grow Nebbiolo grapes, they get to call it Barbaresco...). Our house belongs to Albertina Cavallo, the mother of a friend (of a friend) who lived here for many years before moving to another house close bye with a garden. She is 83 years old and the 3 flights of stairs got to be too much. We have 2 balconies (the top one with a view of the surrounding vineyards) that face the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. It is a small triangle with a church at the point across from us and is a cross section of 6 roads, so during parts of the days the potential for carnage and gridlock are constant, yet, it never seems to occur! Everyone talks about how tranquil it is here, and to be sure there are continuous hours of quiet (thankfully the church bells have the consideration to stop ringing at 10:00 at night and don't start again until 8:00 in the morning), however, throughout the day and evening we have a fantastic rear window view to life in this small village.
There are a few adjustments in our lifestyle between America and Italy. First there is electricity usage, no air conditioning so we sleep in the cool parts of the house and are careful to use the shutters to keep the sun from warming up the house (reverse will occur in the winter). No clothes dryer so we use the clothesline on the terrace. It takes me back to when I was a kid in Virginia handing my mom the wet clothes and managing the clothespins.
Since we only took clothes and books we have furnished the place in the most popular store in all of Italy..... IKEA! Thankfully, John has lots of experience with assembly "I can't believe I just spent 20 minutes assembling a bookshelf that cost 19 Euros!”
John and I finally have our offices "assembled", we are much closer to an actual Internet connection, but are still at the mercy of the Italian bureaucracy. To get a phone line (or post office box, or apartment rental, or ANYTHING official) you must have a codice fiscale, which everyone says is easy to get, but if you are a foreigner, you must then go to Cuneo, another city an hour away, to first apply for your Permission for Stay. When we called to confirm where to go, we were told we needed to call back next Wednesday between 9:00 and 9:30 to schedule an appointment. We asked if an appointment was necessary, she responded that you do if "you don't want to be stuck waiting with all of the rest of the foreigners" seeking the same document. Anyway, the logjam appears to be clearing (we hope!) soon.
In the meantime we are speaking more Italian every day and completely enjoying the routine of life here.
Ciao
Donna
Valle Maira
We spent the last hot hectic days of May moving from our tourist apartment to our house in Neive. How we accumulated so much stuff in 4 weeks is beyond me.
We made a reservation last fall in a beautiful place in the mountains – Casa dei Fiori. It is in the town of Morenesio in the area called Stroppo. Last year we participated in the event called Su Per Stroppo – Up For Stroppo. It is a fundraiser for the area and is a perfect day of hiking, eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful settings I have ever seen. So we wanted to be sure to come back.
Valle Maira is a valley that is a part of the Southern Alps that is only about an hour and a half from our new town. It is one of the only valleys that does not have road access to France, so it is much quieter and less developed than the valleys to the North and South. Historically this valley is on one of the ancient salt roads where people would travel across the mountains to the sea to bring back fish, salt and olive oil. So the cuisine here, and throughout the Northern part of the Piedmont region you find anchovies and fish in many of the popular regional dishes.
This valley also has falls and grand rock formations that rival Yosemite (well, almost), and is very popular for rock climbers. The most popular time is the summer when people from all over Europe flock to the oceans and mountains to beat the heat.
So, we literally tossed all of our belongings into a pile in the house in Neive and took off for the mountains. We were pleased to be joined by our friends from the States Dick & Nancy Ponzi. They had been planning on coming to the Piedmont Region anyway and it coincided with our trip to the mountains, so they added hiking shoes to their bags and came along. As Nancy said, “When I looked on the Internet and found there were only 164 residents, how could I say no?”
The hike begins at an assigned time in the morning in the center of town with a glass of prosecco, a nettle frittata and some bruscetta with anchovy sauce before taking off up the hill. The hike seems to change somewhat each year, and this year it was a bit more demanding in the uphill climb. The second stop was at a church mid way up the hill, we saw several Italian friends at this stop with Arneis and salami before heading further up the hill to Ruta Valle where we had a fantastic stew and zucchini with Nebbiolo before rounding the corner to our town Morenesio for cheese (we are in the middle of cheese country here!) and Barolo and Barbaresco and finally off to the Santuaria d’ Santa Maria for dessert a dessert prosecco, coffee, cookies and grappa! This hike warrants much more detail, but you get the idea.
We started each day with a hike and did our best to rest and relax. The longer we are here the more we realize how much we have to learn. Italy is broken up into (I think) 21 different regions that are defined for specific regional, geographical or cultural reasons. Several of the regions were at various times attached to different countries depending upon who won or lost a war. Each of the regions has it’s own unique dialect. We have begun learning a few Piedmontese words or phrases, and as a friend says, “I was never taught Piedmontese in school, we only spoke it at home, and now just my parents speak it with each other.”
So now in Valle Maira we find ourselves in Occiton country, a part of the Piedmont region, which is seen as an even more ancient culture than Piedmont culture. The dialect here is greatly influenced by French and even sounds French when you hear it spoken. So, we have even more to learn, but, we keep going one layer at a time and that is good.
Ciao
Donna