More truffles and scary movies!

The Sunday before Halloween we went to the truffle festival in a town called Moncalvo. This town is so great with its hilly streets that are pedestrian only, the brick buildings and the medieval feel to the city. They even have a medieval festival in the fall which I wasn't able to go to this year- hopefully next year!



the breakfast room

We woke up to more fog that morning and it was worse than the day before. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty thick and left visibility significantly less than normal. Again, it gave the feeling that we were in Sleepy Hollow. I kept waiting for the headless horseman to pop out at any time. 

a fountain at the B&B, there were huge goldfish in there!

beans over the parking spots at the B&B

We met up with Josh's co-worker Luigi for a drink before going to the festival. He has a house near Moncalvo, so he was there for the weekend and took a break from housework to see us. It was fun to meet him and his wife, and they were very nice!! Hopefully we can get to gether with them again. Luigi is a typical Italian- very happy, super nice and just light hearted. Italians have just a lighter air about them than the people back home. Maybe its just me, but they seem to be less serious about things. Maybe thats why it has taken over a year to get residency (and I still don't have it yet)... But seriously, Italians are very kind, generous people! I feel like I have a lot to learn from them.

we bought some roasted chestnuts,
they were so good!

the merchandise

more merchandise

After a great, romantic weekend of truffle hunting, we went home and enjoyed Halloween with our friends Andrea and Marina. We had dinner, and then the traditional scary movie night. Of course we had to watch Chainsaw Massacre... I hate that movie!! For those of you that don't know, I am not a fan of scary movies. They give me nightmares. Josh holds a traditional scary movie night every year and this year it was more low key, but at least he was able to keep the tradition going. Another tradition that started when I entered the picture is watching Spongebob after the movies so I don't get nightmares! So of course, we watched Spongebob and life was good again. It was another great weekend! So far we have traveled three out of four months in October... I'm starting to get a little tired!! Luckily November slows down for me so I can get caught up with everything at home.

the pumpkin we found in Piemonte and a HUGE butternut
squash we found at the same place.

A romantic weekend for some truffle hunting!

view from our room

The weekend right before Halloween Josh and I went down to the famous Piemonte region (Piedmont) to stay in a small medieval town called Moncalvo. We were lucky enough to get set up with a beautiful country chic room at a B&B within walking distance of the town. When we looked out of our room all you could see were fall colors and vineyards. It was so beautiful! The colors were peaking, and it was a little foggy the whole weekend. It seemed appropriate since it was almost Halloween and the fog made it feel like we were in Sleepy Hollow. I LOVE fall!! It's my favorite season.

Fall colors in the vines


We were lucky to be going to Moncalvo on that particular weekend. The famous truffle festivals were happening in the area so we had to experience them first hand. Truffles are extremely expensive and are found by using dogs or pigs trained to find them. They are essentially an underground mushroom and Piemonte is famous for them. Black truffles are very common so they are less expensive than the white. The only way I can describe the taste (for those of you who have never tried truffle) is that they taste like mushrooms on steroids. It’s a very potent mushroom flavor, not much truffle is needed in a meal. When cooking with truffle, it is usually used as an accent flavor or a garnish shaved over the final presentation. Although, one of my favorite dishes is Mezzaluna (half-moon pasta similar to ravioli) filled with ricotta and truffle, then covered with a white sauce and truffle shavings. OMG…. Its sooooo good!! It makes me hungry just thinking about it.

 

White and Black truffles

Black Truffles

 

we also found this marble Ferrari at the Alba Festival

We stopped by Alba to check out the truffle festival there and had the opportunity to try some wine and buy some truffle products. We really enjoyed it! This would be a fun event to attend with a group of friends. You can enjoy the vendors products while sipping on some wine, and even have some lunch. There are also vendors selling cheeses and meats- some people bought cheese and meat, along with some crackers, a bottle of wine and just had a little picnic at the festival.

a DELICIOUS halloween cookie- it matched the scenery

That same day we also drove around to some of the old hill towns in Piemonte including Neive (an adorable little town about 10 minutes from Alba), Barbaresco (they are also famous for making Barbaresco wine), and Barolo (famous for Barolo wine). After running around all day we were ready to sit in our B&B room and just relax, so we ordered a pizza and opened a bottle of wine we purchased that day. We hung out, ate pizza, drank wine, and played games. It was a great night! Is that a sign that we’re getting old…? J

a friendly cat we found in Neive



Neive



Neive

 



















Barbaresco

Barbaresco had some strange statues...

I like to mimic statues





a little foggy, but here is a view of Barolo from the top of the hill



Barolo



our view at night