February

Last year I discovered that I love February in Italy. In Belgium there was no hope for spring at this time of the year, but here in Italy you can expect everything.

You still can have real winter snow showers, but there are other days, you can work in your top, even if it's only for one hour.

The first picture I have made yesterday (we had 25 cm of snow) and the 2nd picture shows how I painted our facade this afternoon .
Quite a difference!

Visiting wineries

Piemonte = wine !

It's very simple, when you live in Piemonte you drink wine, you talk about wine and most people also have a vineyard for their own table wine.

It's only logical that we visit the wineries in our neighboorhood, to look for possibilities to work together for our guests.

Yesterday we really found a little hidden gem. In the hills above Montechiaro d'Acqui, there is a natural winemaker with only 20 000 square metres of vineyard, but with a passion for it that I can't discribe, you have to see him. He's 80, but seems a lot younger, always smiling and telling stories about wines but also about the book he wrote (about his experiences in the resistance in WWII).

This wine farm existed when Napoleon (in 1797) passed here and it was always the same family.

With his daughter in law we made plans for pizza and wine evenings, degustations ...

I'm sure it will be great working with them !

Heavy Snowfall

They had predicted the snow, but 40 cm ... that's a little too much.

The first snow of 2009

A week later than last year and fortunately many centimeters less !

Guardian article

A Guardian article about walking holidays in autumn that also mentions Piemonte as interesting destination: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/sep/05/walking-holidays-autumn

The hills of Italy's Piedmont region are thankfully on the gentle, rolling side
- conquerable for even the wooziest of ramblers, who have over-indulged on
the area's delicious barolo and barbera wines.

Snow fun in Piemonte

50 acres

50 acres of pure nature, that is all ours now.
Fields, trees and even a little vineyard.

Intro

Far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, standing on a hill with a magnificent view of the surroundig nature, a medieval tower and little church ...

A corner of paradise in an unspoilt part of Italy between Langhe and Monferrato, Piemonte and Liguria, see and mountain ...

That's where we will live and open our agriturismo where we hope to receive guests from all over the world ...




"WE" means:

• Natascha : an Italo-Belgian psychologist with even a little bit of Dutch blood ... a real European citizen


• Nicolas: in a former life he was a lawyer, now he will be responsible of the herbs (lavender, thyme and rosmarin)


• Indy: dalmatian dog who will be our P.R.-manager as she is unbelievable charming