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2022 Liguria, Piemonte, Lake Como

I very much agree with the observation on comparisons between Camogli, Rapallo and Portofino. I'd much rather delight in the individuality than attempt a spurious 'ranking' that is only of relevance to the person doing it and their experience on the day.

It looks like they might be doing an 'art label' thing (changing the art to feature different art each year) with the Traversa Barbera. I doubt I'd be able to resist this version of it:

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Oca Bianca owner called his friend at Traversa and asked if he'd be able to show us around the vinyard, unfortunately they were not available, great gesture! We really enjoyed the wine.
 
Northern Italy 2022, (September 3-14)



Well, it's time to move on, ugh! We all agreed that Santa Margherita Ligure is on our list of "do agains".

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We were out of the apartment around 9:30 and figured we had time to swing by Camogli before getting the car. It was a quick train ride to the Camogli station that sits above this steep town. The sound of rolling suitcases bouncing up and down stairs is etched in my memory! There were a lot of cool shops lining the colorful streets causing the ladies to take short breaks, which I appreciated.


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I won't say that we "saw" all of the town, but once down on the wide seaside promenade we LIKED IT!! Found outdoor seating at a nice cafe at the marina and enjoyed coffee and tea. With the help of our waitress we tried to arrange a taxi back up to the train station, but no luck, very few cars here. Preparing for the "steps" we stopped in a Focacceria to grab our favorite snack food FOCACCIA!! During our uphill slog to the train station we decided that for time sake we might try to call a cab to take us to the Genova airport?...there was actually a cab driver at the top of the hill!!


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A writer once wrote that Camogli is as attractive as any town in Cinque Terra and perhaps should have been included in that group? I think Sei Terra doesn't sound as good, and honestly Camogli should keep under the radar! There were many people there, but plenty of room to breathe. I think this beautiful town will be added to our "do agains" before it morph's into a hot spot.


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The pleasant cab driver told us it would take about 45 minutes to get to the airport and cost $100. We figured it was worth not making train/bus transfers with our luggage. It was a nice quiet ride and I was able to refresh my memory on Italian traffic signs! I got a ticket one trip and wanted to avoid that this trip, if possible. Upon arrival cabby was nice enough to walk us in and pointed at our car rental, "take care, bye bye!" Paperwork was pretty quick, I joked with the man and said is this your largest vehicle? We drive a GMC Yukon at home...he laughed "You Americans" and soon we were off in our comfortable blue Audi A5... probably the largest vehicle we would see ha!



My daughter was the master navigator with directions to Guarene in her phone. The very first toll booth we pulled into was an "uh oh!" moment. We..."I" drove into an easy pass only lane with a guard arm. I didn't see a way to pay? I pressed for assistance and then the cars started pulling in behind me.."UH OH!". Crazy thing, the 10 cars inconvenienced by me never honked like they would at home, simply backed out! The voice in the speaker could not understand me, nor I her....with no cars behind us I said "grazie, bye bye". Over the coming days we learned to avoid the easy pass only lanes (they had a wifi symbol), opting for lanes with payment/no attendant and lanes with payment and attendant, no more uh oh's!



The drive to Guarene was smooth and took less than 2 hours, hope I was doing the correct speed limit! We had texted our greeter earlier and told her we'd arrive between 3-4:00. We were early and she was running a little behind, no biggie. We drove up to and through the narrow streets of the tiny hill town of Guarene. I had previously googled the street map and found the airbnb Luisa's Smile, XVI century house by the castle @ Luisa’s Smile - Apartments for Rent in Guarene, Piemonte, Italy - Airbnb but when actually there I was guessing and simply took an open parking space.

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Why did we choose Guarene and Luisa's Smile? My wife and daughter wanted a place like a farm stay, so that we could really experience, if just briefly, an authentic Italian way of life. Planning this trip just over a month out limited our choices a little, which may have been a godsend actually. We had specific Piemonte towns we wanted to visit and this airbnb was one in the area that just looked awesome in the pictures. The pics and description are good, but we were blown away when we actually saw it, so huge with amazing charm. So... Guarene?...why not!!!

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With down time we walked 100 yards to the tiny town center admiring the architecture and cobblestone road. We commented that we certainly picked a sleepy town, nobody in sight. Town center was complete with beautiful church, government building, bakery and small hotel/ristorante named Mira Langhe. We poked our head in Mira Langha and struck up a conversation with owner Annalisa aka "Ana". She spoke good English and was so welcoming. We told her we were waiting for our greeter, she knew the owners of our airbnb of course. During our conversation a gentleman hands us a chilled Prosecco drink and motions us to sit, how nice! This would be Ana's husband Maurizio, he's also the chef who spoke as much English as I do Italian. A couple minutes later Maurizio delivers a meat and cheese plate that could feed 6 people. We told them we were from the Washington DC area and they told us about their hometown of Guarene, even got to meet their lovely daughter Chiara. It was a fantastic conversation, but soon it was time to meet the greeter. They refused to allow us to pay for the drinks and food, saying "our gift to you", how generous! We asked if we could make a dinner reservation there and was told of course, seating at 7:30.

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Once we met the greeter we realized we were so close to finding Luisa's Smile. We were introduced to the owners Flaminia and Dario, luckily the greeter could translate! They are a wonderful older couple who live on site, but provided us with total privacy. This is a very large property, 4 levels to be exact, owners live on the 3rd and half of the 4th floor while giving us full access to 1st floor (Historic cave and outdoor space), 2nd (living area, kitchen, gardens) and half the 4th (2 bedrooms). To make things easy the owners added an elevator to access all 4 floors, cool. Before I forget, I should mention that this is 2 bedrooms, but they share a bathroom and the elevator is in one of the bedrooms, thus making it perfect for families, not so much for 2 couples wanting complete privacy. The next pic shows the entire villa, 2 separate front doors that provided our privacy.


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This airbnb could be a museum with its history. Earliest written document from Pope Eugene III mentions Guarene in 1154. The Luisa's Smile building is from 1700, but the "cave" has the original well that provided water to the earliest towns people, including the Roero Family, how cool is that! Here's the cave...


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Flaminia and Dario were also very generous, welcoming us with a bottle of chilled champagne, pear cake and a bowl full of fresh fruit. The "home" literally had everything we needed, especially in the kitchen. Walk out the French doors in the kitchen and into the gardens you'll see your neighbor the Castle (5 star hotel now) and the wonderful Church of St Peter and Bartholomew. Look the other way and enjoy the beautiful Langhe valley, even from the elevator!


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Dinner was an authentic Piedmontese dining experience lasting 3 wonderful hours! Entering Mira Langhe we were greeted with welcoming smiles. Ana had our table ready with 3 glasses of sparkling wine, nice! The views of the valley from the large wall of windows was worth the price of admission! Ana described the menu options and we relied on her recommendations, each course was basically a surprise! Daughter Chiara and another wonderful waitress assisted with the multiple courses, all perfectly timed and all equally delicious! (I'll attach this evenings menu). Ana recommended 2 small production wines, Nebbiolo to start things off and later a Barbaresco. We really enjoyed the wines, one of the 2 was from her cousins winery, cool. After finishing with outstanding desserts of panna cotta and torte we walked away from the table happy!


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On the way out Maurizio invites us to join him and his10 local friends outside for after dinner drinks, how could we refuse! The ladies had a Nebbiola and I was given Genepi. With translation help from Chiara I told them the last time I had Genepi was in Annecy France, that's when we discovered that Maurizio spoke a little French. Our daughters rusty high school French came in handy! Our daughter discovered that this area speaks Piedmontese, which has some influence from French, who knew?! Come to find out their daughter said one of her toughest classes was Italian, I said I still have trouble with English, she laughed!



Around midnight we said our thank you and goodbyes and settled our tab, would you believe 110 euros..what?? My attempt at "tipping" was quickly dismissed by Ana. And to top it all off they invited us to breakfast!...We joyfully walked up the cobble stone road under dim warm lighting and commented that we have just met the absolute nicest people in the world.


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To be continued.....ciao!
 
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What a great experience in Guarene. It echoes the four main reasons we keep going back to Piemonte - scenery, hospitality, tradition/history, and the fantastic local products. The added bonus are the really fair/inviting food and accommodation prices.
 
Yes the toll booths are intimidating experiences. I think we were lucky when we drove through France to Italy, doing some basic prep and oddly having a right hand drive car worked fantastically, as the passenger was able to handle the payments, whilst the driver could focus on driving.

Additional stuff that caused us a problem / stress
- Positioning into the right lanes was a minor stress, but...
- Coming out of the payment gates in Italy often presented a significant intersection with vehicles needing to change lanes and with very little road in which to make those manoeuvres. IT's one thing I'll be prepping next time we visit & drive, so that we're not forced into decisions on the fly.
- Not a toll thing, but the exits off the autostrada seemed on first sight to have strangely low speed restrictions. Trust them. Coming off is a nice gentle drift onto the slip road, but fairly quickly there was typically a very sharp bend to the left to take you under the autostrada. If you'd not cut the speed, you'd be in trouble on that bend.
- Aosta. We laughed about this at the time, which is way better than the arguments / recriminations it's too easy to get into. We were approaching a major junction on the way out of the city, and with the plethora of signs... we took the wrong turning onto the toll autostrada. The cost wasn't huge, but it was something like a 10km stretch before we could come off, then we took the ordinary superstrada back into Aosta. We then approached that same junction and .... took the same wrong turning back onto the toll autostrada :banghead:. Retracing our steps again, we managed to get it right 3rd time lucky.
 
Yes the toll booths are intimidating experiences. I think we were lucky when we drove through France to Italy, doing some basic prep and oddly having a right hand drive car worked fantastically, as the passenger was able to handle the payments, whilst the driver could focus on driving.

Additional stuff that caused us a problem / stress
- Positioning into the right lanes was a minor stress, but...
- Coming out of the payment gates in Italy often presented a significant intersection with vehicles needing to change lanes and with very little road in which to make those manoeuvres. IT's one thing I'll be prepping next time we visit & drive, so that we're not forced into decisions on the fly.
- Not a toll thing, but the exits off the autostrada seemed on first sight to have strangely low speed restrictions. Trust them. Coming off is a nice gentle drift onto the slip road, but fairly quickly there was typically a very sharp bend to the left to take you under the autostrada. If you'd not cut the speed, you'd be in trouble on that bend.
- Aosta. We laughed about this at the time, which is way better than the arguments / recriminations it's too easy to get into. We were approaching a major junction on the way out of the city, and with the plethora of signs... we took the wrong turning onto the toll autostrada. The cost wasn't huge, but it was something like a 10km stretch before we could come off, then we took the ordinary superstrada back into Aosta. We then approached that same junction and .... took the same wrong turning back onto the toll autostrada :banghead:. Retracing our steps again, we managed to get it right 3rd time lucky.
I did notice the lower off ramp speeds, then the very short merge lanes to re-enter the autostrada. Our car was set up with an alarm if I exceeded the speed limit by maybe 15-20 kph. That actually was helpful at times. I do like that the law requires that a warning sign is posted before any speed cameras, speeds around and through towns can fluctuate drastically. Still holding my breath to see if I am ticket free.
 
Ah Giuseppe Nada! A winery that a local wine merchant is importing. They've often got a decent tannic structure to them (more than typical for their price amongst Barbaresco wines), but the vibrant fruit should mean it drinks well young. Rivata Borgogno a new name to me, though the family name Borgogno is not uncommon.

The menu looks good - one of those "I'd take anything from that". The primi especially are ones I always look forward to.
 
What a great experience in Guarene. It echoes the four main reasons we keep going back to Piemonte - scenery, hospitality, tradition/history, and the fantastic local products. The added bonus are the really fair/inviting food and accommodation prices.
Can't agree more Joe! Not to mention its proximity to different environments, want a big city, want a quaint town, want the Alps, want a lake or quick drive to a beach! My wife commented that we were only 2 hours from many great places...may have found her "temporary" retirement zone! And yes, the fair prices still amaze me. Choosing pics for next report now....
 
Northern Italy 2022, (September 3-14)


Good first morning waking up in charming Guarene! When my eyes opened I could see through the shutters that it was just getting light outside, maybe 0630. Eased out of bed and opened the balcony door, what a show! The FOG, aka Nebbia, rolled in! Surprisingly not in my head from the night before, but like a soft blanket over the valley.



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The warm morning glow in Luisa's Smile only added to its allure. At 0800 the first chimes from Chiesa dei Santi e Petro e Bartolemeo invited us out to the garden for coffee, this loooong day has begun.



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Fog, I had heard about this Piemonte phenomenon. Just to be "transparent", I am a novice when it comes to wine, but I'm trying hard to retain a little that I learn along the way....just for small talk! With limited knowledge I've been known to say such nonsense as "oh have you tried a Pommard Premier Cru? once while biking through Beaune blah blah blah ha! If you don't mind...during this thread I may include some new (to me!) talking points to get me in trouble at a neighborhood cookout.



Now the fog, dense fog, happens all the time in these valleys. It won't ruin your vacation, it burns off in a couple hours. Being positioned perfectly between the cold peaks of the Alps and the warm coastal air of the Mediterranean creates this. I'm told the fog allows the grapes to ripen at a slower pace, slower pace means more flavor, who knew?! This morning I whispered to the ladies "that is the famous Piemonte fog...I got a look of "here he goes!"



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On today's agenda was breakfast at Mira Langhe and then a hike. Mira Langhe has 7 hotel rooms and provides the guests with a bed and breakfast style buffet. Everything, including omelet, was wonderful and so fresh and perfect! Once finished we talked with Ana, Maurizio and Chiara about hiking, we said we were thinking about Neive to Barbaresco , Ana said "you know Barbaresco is very high up? we said yes and she smiled saying the vineyards are beautiful. We thanked them for breakfast and said we would be eating at the villa this evening because it has a wonderful kitchen to cook in, but did want a reservation for the next evening. Maurizio told Ana to ask us to stop by for drinks after the hike if we had time, how much nicer can they be?

We put a few things, including water, in my small backpack and hit the road. Neive was about a 15 minute drive. Our daughter had the Alltrails app on her phone and would guide us. This is a good app and I actually have used their online website for other hikes www.alltrails.com, very good. First up the hill to the quaint beautiful town to find the trail head. The trail was fairly easy to find and well marked. Down, down, down!



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Under clear blue skies temps would climb near 90 degrees this day. We felt so fortunate to have beautiful weather throughout our trip. Once we walked out of a small wooded area the views of the rolling landscape dotted with hill towns and organized vineyards surrounded us. The smell of the countryside and fresh air was more intoxicating than the Nebbiolo, perhaps origin derived from Nebbia?. Slowly Neive would fade into the distance.



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After our first winding descent we crossed a strada and found our trail marker missing, no biggie we found a foot bridge hidden from view in a grove of trees. We crossed over into a beautiful valley of hundreds if not thousands of hazelnut trees. We would see many other varieties of trees including peach, plum, pear, pomegranate and apples, all full of ripe fruit. Everything is planted with such care, so uniformed, if I had a tape measure I bet I couldn't find a tree an inch out of line! The large poplar tree groves stood out like soldiers on parade, I'm told the truffles like to hide under these shhhhh!



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We would walk through many vineyards, even I recognized the names such as Montestefano, Gallina and Gaja. Interesting that Gaja had the only no trespassing signs, but at that price I assume it's for good reasons. It was impossible for me to know what grapes we were looking at, is it Nebbiolo? Barbera? Dolcetto? Arneis? Chardonnay? etc. I'd say we saw 98% red and 2% white and they were plump and ready to be harvested. I was told that the effects of the drought made the grapes slightly smaller, but they are still packed full of flavor, I can attest to the flavor because I tried one from a bunch that had recently fallen to the ground...not from Gaja though!



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Up, up, up, down, over, down, up, up, up! Finally we see a sign informing us that we are almost to Barbaresco, I was drenched! Yes it was hot, but what a beautiful, peaceful place to walk without seeing a single person. Barbaresco was surprisingly tiny too me, population just over 600? I certainly wasn't disappointed, just had a different picture in my brain.



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They do offer nice modern and formal tasting locations, but we were looking for smallish. We saw Boffa with its gates closed but people were on their patio?, we rang the gates doorbell and I think I heard the angels sing when the large gates electronically opened. A gentleman greeted us and said welcome. Great views from the covered patio, thank you for the shade. I excused myself and changed into a dry shirt so not to offend! I had heard of the name Boffa somehwere? Upon return I found that Pio Boffa owner of Pio Cesare had passed from covid 2 years ago, interesting but sad. Side note, I watched a good youtube on Piemonte wines from V is for Vino and he visits with the daughter who runs Pio Cesare now, good show. Back to Boffa, we each tried their Barbaresco d'Alba, Dolcetto d'Alba, and Roero Arneis, all very good. After some water, wine and meat and cheeses we bid farewell.


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We walked around the small town for a while, looked inside the beautiful church of course and then found a cool little enoteca, I sure wish the wine prices at home were like here! I figured the weight of one bottle wouldn't kill me during our walk back. We looked and looked then remembered that Colo told me to look out for a Ruch'e. Ruch'e is not a grape I would walk by today, but it's a super close neighbor in Castagnole Monferrato, found one, why not!



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It took about 2 hours ( maybe 4 miles) to walk to Barbaresco and the ladies picked up the pace heading back to Neive. Instead of taking the slightly longer loop trail we simply walked the same route back, they wanted cocktails at Mira Langhe! The walk back was interesting because it felt like a different trail with opposite views. We actually saw 2 other hikers chilling in the shade, I tried to tell them they were almost there, no English, so I said "ciao, bye bye" to the amusement of my daughter.



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The walk back took about 1-1/2 hours, not bad. We ran out of water nearing the end, so time to hydrate before touring the town. Neive is also small, very charming and would certainly make a great home base, population around 3000.



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We stopped at a grocery store down the hill from Guarene, bought stuff for dinner, and some BEER! On the way to the villa we swung by the local micro brewery that looked interesting, unfortunately they were on holiday all week. Oh well, we cleaned up and marched down to Mira Langhe at 5pm. Received a warm welcome from everyone including their local friends, one is an expat from Canada, been living the dream for 20 years in Guarene, said it had been a while since he spoke so much English! The ladies enjoyed chilled Marco Porello Rosato and I had a Nebbiolo from Azienda Agricoloa Vielmin, both very good and the wineries just a short distance away. I told Maurizio that I bought a Ruch'e today, he said not from this area but nodded his approval.


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After a fun 2 hour visit we said our goodbyes. Then Maurizio says "Barolo tomorrow!" They had to prepare for the 7:30 seating and I had dinner to cook. They asked if we knew about the concert in the church at 8pm? hmmm, no, but I had to cook. As we walked home the ladies decided to attend the concert while I prepared dinner. I had just finished chopping vegetables while drinking a BEER, then my phone chirped, text read "Stop what you're doing and get down here" Ok, off I went. I quietly walked into the Baroque style Church of the Santissma Annunziata and found 50+ people watching the most amazing duet of piano and trumpet, great musicians. Fun seeing people I recognized, including our villa hosts. I joke, but felt like half the town was in attendance! I stayed entertained for an hour then excused myself to finish dinner, it was 9:30! The ladies returned half hour later after having a great night. Surprisingly we were not completely exhausted while eating a simple ravioli with pesto and cheese. Great day, more tomorrow including Barolo!


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The walking really is superb there, one of the mostly undiscovered joys of the region, and a (joking) pfft! to Gaja for their snobby signs.

In terms of the grapes, it's likely to be nebbiolo highest, and anywhere with a south, south-east or south-west facing slope (i.e. they get the best slopes). Next in line is likely to be Barbera, then Dolcetto and finally the whites which would often be on the lower slopes.

I might be able to look up in the wonderful 'native wine grapes of Italy' (Ian d'Agata), to work out what those grapes are, but definitely don't know them by sight. I reckon though, that the lighter hue on the red grapes would be consistent with nebbiolo (and almost certainly not dolcetto) and given it's near the top of the slope, I'd be guessing that. The whites grapes? Chardonnay I've seen before looks similar, so maybe it is that.

The Vielmin is a new name to me, though I'm not very familiar with the wines from the Roero. They can be a good source of slightly more fruit-forward nebbiolo, but also a region to watch as I reckon there could be some future stars there.
 
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The walking really is superb there, one of the mostly undiscovered joys of the region, and a (joking) pfft! to Gaja for their snobby signs.

In terms of the grapes, it's likely to be nebbiolo highest, and anywhere with a south, south-east or south-west facing slope (i.e. they get the best slopes). Next in line is likely to be Barbrera, then Dolcetto and finally the whites which would often be on the lower slopes.

I might be able to look up in the wonderful 'native wine grapes of Italy' (Ian d'Agata), to work out what those grapes are, but definitely don't know them by sight. I reckon though, that the lighter hue on the red grapes would be consistent with nebbiolo (and almost certainly not dolcetto) and given it's near the top of the slope, I'd be guessing that. The whites grapes? Chardonnay I've seen before looks similar, so maybe it is that.

The Vielmin is a new name to me, though I'm not very familiar with the wines from the Roero. They can be a good source of slightly more fruit-forward nebbiolo, but also a region to watch as I reckon there could be some future stars there.
Ian, would have been nice to have you with us this day! I'll post some pics of the vines. The whites seemed to all be on the lower hills, usually a couple rows amongst all the reds
 
It echoes the four main reasons we keep going back to Piemonte - scenery, hospitality, tradition/history, and the fantastic local products.
Not to mention its proximity to different environments, want a big city, want a quaint town, want the Alps, want a lake or quick drive to a beach! My wife commented that we were only 2 hours from many great places...
In all due fairness to other provinces of Italy, wherever we have traveled in this great country (albeit not very much) we have encountered all the characteristics I noted above. I suppose that Piemonte has a special place for us because it was the first region we traveled to in Italy. If we had traveled first to Umbria - we have never been there - perhaps that area would have got us hooked. And still - maybe the size and diversity of Piemonte make it stand out for us. It would probably take a debate between locals to put the finger on what exactly makes it what it is....
 
In all due fairness to other provinces of Italy, wherever we have traveled in this great country (albeit not very much) we have encountered all the characteristics I noted above. I suppose that Piemonte has a special place for us because it was the first region we traveled to in Italy. If we had traveled first to Umbria - we have never been there - perhaps that area would have got us hooked. And still - maybe the size and diversity of Piemonte make it stand out for us. It would probably take a debate between locals to put the finger on what exactly makes it what it is....
We've only experienced the north, hard to pick a favorite town? My favorite memories usually involve the people (like Guarene), for instance we were treated great in Pienza, walked into a restaurant that was closed at 2pm...group of men sitting on the terrace were drinking wine and one was the owner, he invited us in (no English). His daughter brought us wine and apologized saying they had very little food options, then she brought a feast, ever have grilled mozzarella the size of chicken breast?! Father would come over to chat and point around, we were able to understand that our view included the property from Gladiator, the driveway was the giveaway. Even got a tour of the kitchen...incredible people in "Northern" Italy. Will visit the south sooner than later for comparison!
 
Which region is more hospitable? I don't think I can answer that, but have certainly found superb hospitality in Piemonte, Valle d'Aosta, Emilia-Romagna, and also dotted around elsewhere, including the South & Islands.

Perhaps rather than a region, I'd say it's often very much better away from the mass tourist trail, and the further from that, the more likely to experience traditional Italian hospitality, with the attitude that it is an honour to receive a guest. Guarene comes across as a good choice for that, as somewhere like Barolo has many more tourists wanting to stay or visit there, and I've seen that increase clearly over the last 2 decades. Despite not being far away, it's far enough that fewer tourists go there, and those that do often do so because they like to go beyond the easy and obvious.

I rather enjoy the surprised/confused joy I get talking to someone when they incredulously wonder what on earth a tourist is doing in their city/town/village. I first experienced that back in 1995 when visiting Torino (before it gained any sort of tourist popularity, and it's not especially touristy even now). In truth, one major reason I'd be there, is my enjoyment of the culture and the people. In a meaningful way, they are part of the reason I'm there, even if neither of us had met before.
 
My wife is interested in seeing Turin. Surprises me, but not having been there maybe it reminds her of Paris? The history of the Savoy's interests me. We drove from Nice to Beaune 2 years ago and she asked me to stop in Bourg-en Bressa....where the heck is that?! She read about the Royal Monestary of Brou. The story of Margaret Duchess of Savoy is interesting, her early love story with Philibert Duke of Savoy would make a great movie if not already done. Ian, what area of Turin do you like to stay?
 
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Sorry I forgot to post grapes, crazy thing about my computer this time, some pics were out of sequence when I downloaded from the sim card, very annoying. I can't be sure which vines were at what elevation or which way they were facing ha!

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I rather enjoy the surprised/confused joy I get talking to someone when they incredulously wonder what on earth a tourist is doing in their city/town/village..... In truth, one major reason I'd be there, is my enjoyment of the culture and the people. In a meaningful way, they are part of the reason I'm there, even if neither of us had met before.

What a great way to describe that aspect, I agree with you completely. These encounters with people who, on the one hand find it hard to understand why anyone would bother taking the trouble to come such a long way to see their routine surroundings, and on the other hand, take pride in exactly that, and are more than willing, and even honored, to invite you in for a better get-to-know.
 
Guessing time! :dancingcow:
I'm going to plump(!) for Dolcetto for the top one, big bunches, dark colour, and ripens earlier than Nebbiolo
 

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