We caught the express bus to the airport from near Porta Nuova Station for €7.50 each – I decided to buy the ticket from the tabacchi this time, just in case there were no tickets sold on the bus. We made it in plenty of time to collect the car from Car Italy. I had booked this online more than 6 months ago and had got a great deal. Only a few weeks ago though, I had decided that we should take out the extra insurance protection for €25 per day. Our credit card does cover insurance for hire cars, but I’d read some horror stories. I am hoping that we just spent €225 for nothing. That would be a great outcome.

The car was better and bigger than I thought it would be, and the nice young man helped me to get my phone connected to Apple Car Play.

Of course we chose the route that would bypass Turin city. Mick’s job was to make sure we used the smaller roads and avoided tolls where we could. Unfortunately, we did use one toll road, but by some fluke we worked out how to pay with our credit card.

Our first stop was in Carmagnola where we did some grocery shopping, and Mick bought half a rabbit to cook for us tonight. He was so excited, and Jeanie and Michael are so pleased we are eating that before they arrive tomorrow.

We travelled on some small rustic, rural roads after our stop for groceries, but had still not spotted one grape vine. It wasn’t until we were only 2km away from Novello that we saw our first vineyards. And as if on cue, the fog started to roll in. In Italian – fog is called ‘nebbia‘, and this gives the Nebbiola grape variety its name.

Nebbiolo is the name of the red grape variety that is used to produce the great bottlings of Barolo and Barbaresco, both of which are required by law to be crafted entirely from it.

The view from our apartment – there are some vineyards out there.

After checking into our apartment, putting on a load of washing, and (Mick) putting on his rabbit stew, we headed out to explore our little village.

One of the reasons we are staying in Novello is that I had read that it was a great place to base yourself when exploring the Piedmont wine region.

Most of these small villages have a communal wine cellar, or a Cantina Municipale, where you can visit to taste the wines of the area. And this is the one in Novello.

We were the only people there when we visited, and the fellow there was very nice to us. We spoke a mix of English and Italian, which was fun. He explained that Novello has 16 different wine producers and it was here that we could taste wine from all of them. There were several options for tasting the wine.

Mick chose to taste the three different Barolos, and I tried the mixed selection, as I wanted to try a Nas-cëtta – the white wine of Novello that now has its own DOCG classification.

Before we actually tasted any of the wines, our sommelier gave us the backgrounds to each of them, and of this region. It was a very interesting conversation, and as I said, in mixed English and Italian.

Each was delicious, but the Nas-cëtta was a great surprise; a minerally, crisp wine. We left with a bottle of that for €12.

Barolo is made from Nebbiolo grapes. The wines must be aged for 36 months, 18 in wood. Reserva Barola is aged for 62 months. It can be a very expensive wine, particularly for the older vintages. Mick’s favourite was also the sommelier’s favourite: Le Strette, 2019 Barolo for €42. We left with a bottle of that too to have with our dinner

I thought that would be enough for our first day, but Mick decided to try a glass of a different Nas-cëtta, which he didn’t like it as much as the one that I had tried.

Dinner was the best we have eaten since we left home. Mick can certainly cook rabbit!!. The plates, the cutlery and the table may not have been the fanciest we have had, but the meal was amazing.

The weather tomorrow has some rain forecasted – but I am sure we will manage. We will collect Jeanie and Michael from the train station in Bra and then hopefully do some more wine tasting in this region.

Because after all, that is why we are here.