Last day in Alba. Going to Genova

October 19, 2007, Friday

My last day in Alba. I packed up to begin the trek to Genova, but went for a last stroll around the town to take more pictures. I had lunch at Locanda del Pilone and met some folks from LA and their friends who had just moved to Alba (they’re Texans with a drawl—they spoke Italian, but I didn’t notice if it had a drawl, too). It turned out that the restaurant was owned by the Cerreto family, who also have a winery just outside Alba. The restaurant manager was able to get me a slot in a tour at 2pm, which just fit my schedule.

So packed, checked out of the Hotel Savona in Alba, I went to the Cerreto cantina (winery). Most wineries require reservations, you can’t just walk in like you can in Napa or Sonoma. They are also much more personal. There were 3 of us on the tour. The other 2 were a couple from Australia. He worked for an Aussie wine company and was in Piemonte getting clues for wine-making back home. So we were treated very well and offered tastings of wines that usually didn’t make it to the tasting table. The first part of the tour went over the Cerreto family holdings vineyards in Alba, Barolo, Barbaresco; what sorts of wine they made at each of them, etc. We toured the wine making facilites and met a couple of the Cerreto sons that currently run the winery. For the tasting, they take into the tasting room and all sit at a table where the tour guide pours the selections (this is the way that Caymus sets up their tastings in Napa). All in all, a very nice tour (but the Cerreto wines aren’t that good).

From there, I hopped onto the Autostrada and drove to Genova (about 1-1/2 hours at 80 mph or 130kph). Well, I arrived in Genoa (Genova in Italian) and checked into my "studio" apartment. After the GPS misdirected me to the Hertz rental place (I'm not sure what they mean by their "Neverlost" brand name, but it's pretty bad when it can't even get you back to Hertz!). Finally a guy from Hertz came by and showed me where it was (I wasn't far, but I couldn't understand what he was telling me to do).

I get a taxi and meet the landlady, Signora Giovanna Pescetto. The building she says is 16th century, and the floor is original brick (and sags in the middle). Anyway, the building is in a pedestrian-only zone, so I have to lug my bags up a stairway to get from the plaza where the taxi left me off to the front door of the building. Then she says someone is staying in the apartment they sent pictures of and so she's given me a bigger unit on the 3rd floor (remember here, the first floor is one flight UP, so an Italian 3^rd floor is a US 4^th floor). So more lugging (my big bag weighed in at 53 pounds when I check in at the airport, and felt like 63 pounds after the first flight, 73 pounds after the second flight, …).

So much for wondering if I was going to get enough exercise. Just walking up to the apartment a couple times a day will do it! Even without luggage.

We get to the apartment. The front door opens on a kitchen/dining combo. Off to one side is my bedroom with 2 single beds. So far, so good. There is a washing machine, but she says it doesn't wring all the water out, and a clothes line is out the window, just like in the movies!

Then there are set of stairs going up to a loft. The original room must have had 14 foot ceilings. This has been divided vertically to make the loft. From the bath level, there are another 3 steps to the living room and a second bedroom (anyone want to visit?). However, there's a catch. The clearance between the floor and the original beamed ceiling in the loft is about 5 feet. I can just stand up if I put my head between the beams. Fortunately, the bath ceiling is a normal height.

It's fairly nice, all in all. It even has DSL (with a wired connection), so I won't have to take my laptop to the school to do email.

After quickly unpacking, I head back down the (way too many) stairs to find dinner. Luckily there’s a pizzeria just a few yards from the front door. Time to eat and crash.