Fiumicino, Italy

After a long (10 hours), draining drive from Alba to our Best Western room near the Rome Airport, the car rental returned, etc., we await our ItalAir flight tomorrow morning to Toronto. Since today's blog would be on Italian toll roads we saved a bit of Alba to post today:

After our truffle hunt we went on a wine tasting! The Barolo region is famed for its red wine production. We visited one of the region's wineries, had a grand tour and a tasting session. We failed to impress the Italians with our oenological abilities, but we blew them away with our mycological expertise!

The Winery

Vineyards abound

Original bottle from the 1800s. Corked and wax sealed and still full.

Aging barrels

Taste test room

Ripening wine grapes

As mentioned the drive was long and boring. Every time we thought we had gone through the last tunnel there was another one so probably well over 150 in total. Not sure why but traffic came to a stop on the freeway and we crept along for nearly two hours at approximately 10 km an hour when we weren't just stopped. No real issue evident either, We figure we have now spent over $200 on tolls, Not sure what the general public does but no real obvious way around it. Google maps gave us three options but each one included tolls.

Except for the brutal heat Italy has been great. Beautiful scenery, friendly people and amazing cheese. Having said that we will both be glad to get home. 

Alba Truffle Hunt

After a quiet night serenaded by the gentle cooing of the doves (and we are above a bar and a restaurant - go figure), we GPSed to our designated meeting place to pick up our guide Marco at 0930. Marco then came on board and became our GPS and translator. His English was excellent and very carefully spoken. 

After a short drive into the country we arrived at a hazelnut orchard flanking a mature oak forest and met Enrique, the truffle hunter and Lisa, a 12 year old spaniel mix truffle dog. We (and Lisa's leash) went off. Lisa found a total of four summer black truffles. Each scenario proceeded as follows|:

1. Lisa would patrol the area until she caught a whiff of truffle. She would then zone in on the exact location and start rapidly digging.

2. Enrique would rush oven a grab Lisa so her nails would not damage the mushroom.

3. Enrique would then carefully unearth the truffle using a screwdriver-like tool.

4. Lisa would then get her treats (and in one case a small, reject truffle).

Mature oak forest

Sign marking area

Enrique, Lisa, Marco and Norma

Enrique and Lisa at a find

Unearthing the find

There it is!

Savouring the odour

A nice big summer black truffle

A great experience!

Some questions we had answered:

The truffle dogs start their training at a very young age when still nursing. Truffle oil is applied to the mothers nipples so the pups learn the smell and taste. The dogs that will excel are soon identified and training starts with buried truffles. Lisa's five year old daughter is also one of the dogs used but was left home today as she gets too rambunctious.

 

We asked Enrique if he takes his finds home to eat but he says he sells to restaurants in town or sends them to a contact in Dubai. 

The truffle hunters have challenges like we do in Canada. The forests are being cut down to make room for grapes. The extreme temperatures and dry years halt production. They have just ended a three year drought where there wasn't even snow.  The Alba area has recently been deemed a UNESCO cultural heritage site to help preserve this activity. 

Alba, Italy

 We left our "somewhat less than satisfying" accommodation in Asiago at about 9 this morning. Booking.com will be provided with a suitable review. We then had a wonderfully controlled descent off of the plateau with all kinds of time to sightsee (we followed a transport truck down and you don't pass on that road unless you are a crazy Italian driver). Check out the GPS view below.

Italian alpine architecture

Plateau scenery

Descending

Switchbacks on the GPS

Volcanic cone

Our hotel is a bar/restaurant and the room is up the stone stairs

But it is nice up here

We are staying in a quintessential Italian apartment above a restaurant/bar which has very good air conditioning - yep it's hot again. We followed the GPS instructions and found ourselves on cobblestone streets, not for cars. Luckily a police officer who spoke some English directed us to a parking area where we used our phone GPS to walk to the hotel. It is very much what we expected of a smaller Italian town, lots of shops and things to explore. Even a gelato shop where a young family coming out told us it is the best is Alba.

We will spend two days here. Glad to be having a rest from the freeway and the hundreds of transport trucks. It is all toll roads, or at least where we are going. Every toll booth has a different way to insert the ticket and pay. We have watched many YouTube videos for hints and think we have it only to find yet another different type of booth. None are manned. I guess if we were here longer we could/would find other roads but with our limited time we have picked the quickest route.. We are already over $150 CND in tolls!

Tomorrow morning we meet Marco and his truffle dog - don't know the dog's name yet.  Then we go on a truffle hunt.

Asiago, Italy

 Today's drive started from Parma on freeway toll roads (and another battle with the toll plazas) and ended with a very winding mountain road onto the Asiago plateau. It is quite a beautiful area and, of course, famous for its cheese. The tour we took was at the Caseificio Pennar establishment, a co-op started in the early part of the 20th century to supply the local population. It ships everywhere now.

Cheese making establishment

5000 liters of milk!

Tour Guide

Aging room (the cheese, not Norma)

The product

Each wheel must be turned daily

Cheese shop

The tour was perhaps a bit more informal than our Parma tour and we did not get to see the actual curd collecting process, but we did see the wheel turners - what a job! After the tour we went into the very busy (take a number) cheese shop to sample five different cheeses differentiated by age and curing process.  While we were on tour there was a very noisy t-storm outside and guess what - it has finally cooled off!  We are so grateful for the GPS. No way we would have found the tour or the hotel without it.

Tomorrow we go to Alba.

Parma, Italy

After a restful sleep in the NH hotel (we remember one of these from a previous motorcycle tour) we met our tour company van in front at 0839. We then were transported through farm lands to the cheese making farm on the outskirts of Parma: Borgodel Gazzano. This is a family owned and run operation. We knew we had arrived by the smell, flies and bellowing cows.

Company vehicle

Our first introduction was to meet some of the girls. They are special girls: four different strains, all experts in producing 20-40 litres of cheese milk per day. To that end they are kept in a huge cool enclosure with all they can eat and drink. They are not allowed into pasture. Their intake is controlled with a set diet which insures they produce milk containing a specific bacteria needed to create this special cheese. Too hot, wrong kinds of food and they would have to scratch their own butts on a fenceposts instead of the automatic buttscratcher provided. What a life!

Some of the girls

Automatic buttscratcher

We then were taken to the cheese making area where we were given a detailed description and demonstration of the entire process.

Cheese making area

Collecting the cheese curd block

Compressed blocks floating in salt brine

Storage and aging room

We learned a lot about the intricacies of the process and what makes real Parmigiano Reggiano

different from just parmasan. The tour ended with a sampling of the different grades of cheese and some wine. They also had a gift shop.

Samples

$5000 CDN for the 50 lb wheel!

It has been another hot day. The cheese making area was quite warm - the aging and storage areas were wonderfully cool. Tomorrow we travel by car 3-4 hours to Asiago for another cheese tour.

Rental car to Parma

 This morning was a busy one, starting at about 5:30 am getting ready to disembark. After claiming our luggage and contemplating the distance needed to walk to the rental agency a young employee of the cruise line directed us to the shuttle bus which went to the train station. It  was next to the rental agency. Worked well so we picked up our Peugeot SUV Diesel early. It is a very nice vehicle albeit a bit low slung for us oldsters. After setting the GPS we  headed north on the Italian version of an interstate. Lanes are far narrower than we are used to on the freeway and truck traffic was heavy. And an additional headache are the toll booths. Watching internet videos on how to navigate the toll plazas is a waste of time. There are no attendant manned booths so if your ticket cannot be read by the machine you will pay the maximum toll. 

GPS with useless toll card

Flat coastal land

Yay, mountains are coming up

Europeans love their tunnels

Freeway though the mountains

Tonight we are in the city of Parma. Tomorrow we go on our first cheese tour: ParmaSAN, of course. We had dinner in the dining room at the hotel. It was entertaining people watching. One fellow came in dressed and acting like what we envision the Italian gigolo, or at least that was what he seemed to portray. We also now know to be wary ordering steak in Europe. The poor fellow beside us ordered the rib eye steak, no steak knife and he merrily sawed away at it finally giving up and covering most of it up. Our dinners ( Norma had the chicken, Doug had prosciutto) however, were very good.

Salerno and Pompeii

 The high 30's temperatures persist in Italy and Salerno, the port nearest to Pompeii is no exception.

Salerno, Italy

The intrepid family adventurers proceeded on a guided tour to Pompeii early this morning. The tour was informative and gave us a good appreciation of the historic site and the disaster.

Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in Background

Intrepid adventurers

Pompeii victim

Residence in excavated site

Brothel bed

Tonight is our last sail on the Celebrity Constellation. Our destination is the cruise port of Rome, Civitavecchia. From there we have a rental car available and will head toward Northern Italy and hopefully some cooler temperatures.