At the end of a very long tunnel out of France we were greeted with sunshine! Something we had come to miss during our stay in France. Although the French Alps may be as beautiful and majestic as their Italian counterparts, we couldn’t tell you because they were hemmed in by cold grey clouds. Here on the Italian side they stood proudly and their snow caps shown bright, announcing the true arrival of spring. It was obvious from the start – we were in love with Italy!
At the end of the 6 hour journey out of Lyon, in a packed-to-the-gills VW Golf, our kind Slovenian rideshare driver, her Slovenian navigator and a young Columbian woman that has lived in Italy for most of her life (she taught us some basic Italian on the way) dropped us off at a train station outside of Milan.
We hopped on a tram and made our way to city center, we were only in Milan for a few hours (more on Milan later!) and then we went to the airport to rendezvous with Sierra’s good friends Michael and Carrie. After much excitement about us actually pulling off an international rendezvous so seamlessly, Michael picked up the car he had rented and Carrie filled us in on the days they had just spent in Paris.
We were then whisked off through the Italian countryside, with many more stories of Paris from Carrie and Michael and sharing our travel stories as well, while admiring the changing sunset backdrop. Surprise to us, Michael had plans to take us to one of his favorite places, an incredible Bio-dynamic winery/restaurant/hotel- Casa Scaparone.
When we arrived we were quickly enveloped by the beautiful place and a glorious six course dinner was served. Really, the best food and wine we have ever tasted! (sorry not to have pictures of the meal, just couldn’t be bothered to put down our forks! Yum!) Everything was perfect and our host, Luigi was charming and excited to share stories and insisting we “Relax… you are in Italy!” Carrie and Sierra were the only diehards, savoring every bite of the multi course feast and finishing off the meal by sharing a huge slice of Tiramisu!
After dinner we waddled back to our room and fell into a food coma…
After stuffing ourselves full again on a scrumptious breakfast buffet, fresh cakes, yogurt, granola, many house made jams, fresh bread and of course coffee for all! Next we headed on to explore the nearby city of Alba.
sierrajohnrambleon 