7-9 April Barolo, Italy - wine country and Switzerland

Barolo, best wine making region in Italy

We left Cinque Terre with mixed feelings - It was nice to carry on with our trip but it was sad to leave such a beautiful area.
Soon we realised though that there are other nice places. As the road carried us north and then west the country side changed, from mountains to rolling hills and we were entering the area of Barolo. This is the famous Italian wine area...and pretty countryside as well.
Our place of residence(booked the previous evening, through the Internet) turned out to be brilliant. It was a revamped farmhouse. Two Italian brothers had built it back up from ruins to a wonderful Bed and Breakfast.
That evening on insistance of our host, we ate at an Italian family run Trattoria in the next village - 200m away.

There were no choices on the menu but with broken English and Italian and hand signals. - Vegetarian = show of horns, act of chewing and then vigirous shaking of the head. The old man eventually got it and scuttled back to the kitchen...there was a lot of shouting, and we imagine, even more flying around of hands and arms.
Bottom line is we had the best tasting meal so far on our trip...from the starter, pre-main course, main course (x2) and dessert. The Tagliatelle that he had handmade tasted and felt (as Di described it...) like Angels' hair.

Next day we went for a walk to some of the local surrounding villages, eventually after 10km' we had lunch in Barolo and visited the wine museum in an old castle. It was really well done and even the kids loved it as it was very interactive.
We called our host to come and fetch us as the walk back would have been just too much for the bambinis.
Our final afternoon/evening in this area spent drinking local wine and enjoying the sunset from our terrace.

walking in Barolo - mommy lost the map

Barolo Wine Museum in an old castle

Leaving Italy and going to Switzerland 10-20 April
Our drive up north to Switzerland took us through the Alps- and we mean through - we crossed into France via the Mont Blanc Tunnel. This was kind of strange ...11+ km's through the mountain, where only a decade or so ago 100's of people died when a truck caught fire in the tunnel, trapping them. But the safety and security measures were very abundant.
The Only negative feedback we have of Italy is the cost of travelling on their highways. A trip of about 270km's from Barolo to Mont Blanc cost us over 100 Euros(more than N$1000).
But even that could not deter from the fact that it is a wonderful country with beautiful carefree people.
They don't seem to take much very seriously, I mean rules and regs - I am sure it is to do with the fact that they have had more governments since the Second World war than years gone by!!! So, when a government changes some law(for eg speed limits!) why should they care about it, the next government will just change it back.

Sylvio Berlusconi their prime minister/president or whatever, is in SUCH poo because of sexual indescretions BUT most people think 'so what, he's just human'. Whereas he has quite a strong anti-immigrant policy and THAT fact is important to the Italians.

Switzerland
We are now visiting Georges and Justine Locher, with their kids Benjamin and Alexia. They live in a picturesque little town called Chatel-St-Denis. A lot of you will remember the Locher family from Swakopmund. Justine has a great job with a Pharmaceutical company and Georges is looking after the kids while getting ready to start a Tourism - Meet the Local People - type of venture. It will be called Swiss Safaris. They still have Africa so much ingrained in them! it is very nice and relaxing being here and seeing them again. The kids bonded as if there hadn't been a 3 year gap at all and this takes gives Di and I quite a lekker break. Georges cooks for us everyday and of course feeds us wine till we drop. Justine has our excursions all sorted as well.
They have bought a house in Chatel-St-Denis...a huge 3 story plus a massive cellar. The house is over a centuary old - beautiful!

Locher Swiss Residence

We went to an 'Swiss open day' for lack of a better word. Everyone was to bring some mode of transport(eco-friendly of course). So we ended up at a place called Avenche with bicycles, roller blades, scooters, feet etc for a 32km circular route, with refreshment points and food huts everywhere...I kid you not, the official attendance was 50 000 people! We even went to visit some Roman ruins.

Open day in Switzzerland

Playing in a postcard

Cameron learing to make pizza from Georges

Roman Ruins in Switzerland

Switzerland general
For those that have not been to Switzerland...Imagine what you think it should be like...IT IS!!!!! It is a bloody postcard, with no crime, law abiding people, neat and of course chocolates. Little Heidi and Peter houses, lots of green pastures, cows with bells on and snow capped mountains!!!! They speak French, Italian(in some Cantons) and ...I am loathe to call it German, it looks like German on paper BUT it sounds like Dutch/Arabic with a large dollop of some throat infection!

Hiking in the Alps