Foreword

Before I get to today’s activities, I have to address the name of this town. To English speakers it does sound rather funny, and certainly Mick and Michael had made some little jokes about it when we were discussing arrangements for our holiday in this area. Mick skited that he would now be able to say that he had visited Condom (in France – a few years ago) and Bra (in Italy).

In more important background to this town, Bra gives its name to two food products: the Bra DOP cheese and a delicious sausage. And no, we haven’t tried either. Yet!

Now let’s move on.

Today’s Story

We woke to rain, only steady, but relentless. We did not have a lot planned for the day, although I had a few things on my ‘wish list’, which can easily wait until another day.

There was still a thick fog outside, which Mick liked to look out upon from our apartment window. There is an old building undergoing significant restoration work almost next door to us, and that too kept him occupied. I heard this shout, as Mick wanted me to look at a truck going by. The road is one way and only just fits a car. This truck driver was reversing a large load of sand to the work site.

Our main job was to collect Jeanie and Michael from the railway station in Bra – a town about 20 minutes drive from Novello, much bigger in size with a population of around 30,000. They were catching the 10.30am train from Porta Susa in Turin. But things did not go quite as planned.

We headed out to meet them at 11.30am, but as we were driving, Michael was texting Mick saying that train was no longer moving.

When we got to Bra Railway Station I asked the station worker what time it was due in, and she replied “cancellata“. Michael and Jeanie apparently were sitting on the train, which was going nowhere, and without any advice as to what was happening. Train journeys in Italy (and France for that matter) can sometimes be a bit of a lottery.

This time, our friends did not win the lottery!

They had travelled around 10km to Moncalieri, and then nothing. Eventually some advice came through saying a train would be leaving at 1.45pm. So they had a toasted sandwich and a beer on that update, and hoped that a train would in fact move.

When the train was “back on track”, we headed back to Bra. The weather had cleared a little, and at least we knew the way there and back now.

The train eventually pulled into Bra at 3.30pm – only 4 hours late.

Once back in Novello with our friends checked in, their washing on, and dinner simmering on the stovetop, we headed out to the Cantina Municipale for a wine tasting. It was my turn to cook.

We braved the weather for the walk to the Cantina – really the only way to go. This gave Jeanie and Michael a chance to get their bearings in our little village.

It is harvest time here at the moment. But sadly for the growers, the rain and the fog are making it difficult to pick the grapes. The soil is too muddy to even walk on.

Our sommelier tonight was most knowledgeable, but shier than our man last night. Anyway, he was very patient with us as we tried some different wines.

Michael and Mick chose the three red wines, Jeanie chose the three white wines – all Nas-cëtta, and I selected the three mixed wines.

Jeanie was very pleasantly surprised by all three whites, and like us the night before, found it hard to decide which one was the best.

While we were there, a man came in to deliver some boxes of wines to our sommelier. After he left, we were told that he was one of the wine makers, and in fact Jeanie was tasting one of his wines at that very moment. We would have loved to have given him a small round of applause for his wine had we known. Perhaps he was shy too.

Mick had decided last night that he wanted to buy a bottle of the bubbles made here – using methode traditionale – from 100% Nas-cëtta grapes.

We ate dinner in Jeanie and Michael’s apartment, which is just above ours as theirs has a table that can seat 4 people. Dinner was a chicken casserole with sun-dried tomatoes (of the Turin-market fame, as I needed to use them somehow), olives and pasta. We enjoyed that with a few glasses of the wine that we had just tasted and purchased.

Not a late night again. We’re all getting a bit old to party.

We have some plans for tomorrow, which will depend on the weather. Hopefully the nebbia is lifted.