Barolo, Novello and Vergne in one day

Zagan the motorhome has returned to the free official sosta in Castiglione Falletto (N44.62294 E7.97474), after spending the day sightseeing in the hilltop villages around him.

This morning’s first task wasn’t a pleasant one for one member of Our Tour, as the amount of dog fur in Zagan has reached critical proportions. With the weather still being cool it isn’t time for drastic action (a fur cut), but instead a jolly good combing to get out all the loose stuff before it gets chance to attach to everything! When we got Charlie the information we read said his breed love to be groomed; he’d obviously never read this as he hates it. He’s never happier than when he is having a good scratch sending his fur wafting around him in the air like confetti ready to fall into your morning brew or coat the bottoms of your jeans. It took about ten minutes this morning to get a fist-sized ball of fur off him, and that was only on the bits he would let me get to – his big furry butt is the target for tomorrow (and his other ear as he looks a bit odd at the moment).

Today was ‘spot the worker’ day, lone figures clipping miles of vines

Two guys worked this vineyard – can you spot them?

Operation comb-the-dog complete, we had breakfast with the sun shining down on us before we hit the road for a closer look at the villages we could see dotted among the vine-clad hills. First stop Barolo, which gives its name to the King of Italian wines.  Finding a parking space (N44.61170, E7.94324), we’d arrived in amongst a bit of a building site. It transpires that a large part of the town is in the process of being renovated, bright orange netting covered the alleyways, to protect us from crumbling walls or falling masonry, although the musty smell of age-old plaster drifted through.

Not the prettiest of sights as you arrive in Barolo

Barolo from above, a much prettier view

We’d set off quite early for us, around 9.30am, and it would seem a bit too early for Barolo as the town was still asleep. The builders were at work, but there was no one else to be seen. This gave us plenty of opportunity to window shop in the enotecas (wine shops). I had toyed with the idea of buying a bottle, after all we bought Port in Porto,  Bardolino wine in Bardolino and a bottle of Montepulciano in, I think you can guess where, but the difference between Barolo and those places was they all had a supermarket. In Barolo there were only cantinas and enotecas – some where you have to buy a minimum of six bottles and others where they only have their own stuff. We’d already had the experience of buying from the producer in Champagne, so we’ve opted to wait until we reach somewhere with a less touristy shops and do our taste test there, as the cheapest we could find was around €25 a bottle, which is €10 more than we paid for Champagne!

Jay has chosen this bottle, but he hasn’t seen the price yet!

Apart from being quiet, the town itself was made up of places being done up and places that have been done up, there don’t appear to be any of the usual ‘dooer-upper’ opportunities here like you see in every other village in Italy. Judging by the volume of wine shops I can only think it does a roaring trade for coach parties in the summer. Even Elton John is popping in during July to do a concert – no idea where though as, being a hill top village, space is at a premium. It did get us wondering if his booking has prompted some of the building works, and if he’ll be paid in wine?

As well as the wine museum there is a corkscrew museum here too

As we made our way back to Zagan a few of the shops started to open, so as the sleepy village began to come to life we headed off to Novello, just five kilometres away. Arriving here we parked on the edge of town, which was a good job as several streets were closed for building works. I guess we are here off-season so it’s a good time to get work done. I nipped into a shop to buy a couple of small ciabatta before they closed for lunch, and was greeted with a buongiorno as soon as I walked in, then the conversation carried on between the shop assistant and other customers, then it stopped suddenly and everyone was looking at me. “Err pane?” I squeaked, holding up two fingers – I really must make more of an effort to learn the language.

Novello – each hill top town falling down the hill side from the church or castello perched on top

Novello had a couple of great viewpoints, one looking out across the valley to the Alps, giving a 180° view from the highest peaks to our right to where they sloped down towards the Mediterranean on our left, we would both happily sit there all day and stare out at them. The towns themselves are quaint little places, but it’s the scenery surrounding them here that is the thing to see.

After a spot of lunch in the car park at Novello (ciabatta of course!) we made tracks for Vergne. This little hamlet is included in the map for Barolo as there are some of the wine sellers there and a campsite, but not much else. We went for a walk around, our presence being communicated to the world by the varying octaves of chained-up or gated-in dogs along our route. They are clearly here as guard dogs, or rather deterrents, and they are mainly small and yappy, but I can’t see the same practice being used in the UK without complaints to the council about the noise!

After having his fill of rubbing his face in the remaining bits of snow (it’s sturdy stuff as we reached about 17°C here today) Charlie started to limp a bit so we headed back to Zagan. Returning to our sosta for a second night, we still have the place to ourselves and chilled out with the window open listening to the birds in the trees and letting in the fresh air. Tomorrow we have another hill top village to visit, then who knows – it’s so beautiful around here I’m reluctant to leave.

Now what shall we drink with our dinner?

Ju x