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We left Turin in the sun! Then it rained, then it was sunny and hot, then it was cloudy and it was hot and humid, then it rained, then it...
Not many sights per se on this ride, but we did climb a hill into a town with a random castle? chateau? insane asylum? Not sure what it was but there were a lot of school trips around to visit it.
And on the other side of the hill, far off in the distance, behind those thunderheads, were the Alps!
We saw one cute town, which turned out to be not quite as cute close up. Luckily we were not staying there.
We also got lost a couple of times in some very rural mazes of country lanes and discovered that the world's oldest business is alive and well in rural Italy. We saw signs of this on our last trip, random plastic chairs by the side of the road in strange places, but this time we saw three young ladies plying their trade and had one very awkward encounter with a trucker...
But soon we were back on our way and arrived at Bard, and medieval village in a strategic location at the mouth of the Valle d'Aosta.
The town is surrounded by dramatic hills and in the distance snow capped peaks, with many robust waterfalls around. Why are the waterfall so robust?
Because of the goddamn rain! (Excuse my French, but the weather deserves it! Coincidentally, Bard and the rest of this area is bilingual Italian and French. It's the gateway East France.)
Yes, again we arrived in the rain, spending the last 30 minutes schlepping uphill in a downpour. However that was nothing compared to what happened after we got into a hobbit hole of an inn, when it got so dark and stormy that all the street lights came on!
Once the storm abated to a light drizzle, we decided to go out and see the town. Town is a generous description, it's a very charming and very old one-street hamlet. Clearly they are used to living on a mountainside in a rainy area, as people have their own rivers running through their basements
And the residents have given up fighting back the vegetation.
Bard has a lovely view, which must be even lovelier without clouds.
Then we discovered that the restaurant at which way intended to dine, the only restaurant in town as far as we knew (the rest being closed because it was Tuesday, of course), was closed unexpectedly. We staggered down the wet cobblestone street in desperation and staggered into the first open door we could find. It was a very fancy, expensive, and fairly mediocre restaurant, but we were happy to be eating, warm and dry.
Amuse bouche of chickpea soup with speck
Aubergine "flan" for A
Alien smiley face gnocchi with dried apples and blue cheese sauce for E
Steak with cartooishly clear grill marks for E
and cod with more chickpeas for A
Here is the server making tableside steak tartare for the other party in the restaurant. He had about 14 kinds of oil, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, and cognac. Tabasco and cognac, why not?
Then we went back to our hobbit hole and played around on the old furniture for a while.
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