We're having a 4 day weekend.  Tuesday, May 1st, is celebrated as Labor Day in much of the world. Nobody cares about Labor day here but it's a four day weekend just when weather is turning warm so most folks went off to the sea.  GP and I went out to Alba yesterday to see Vinum, a wine festival that has become quite a big deal in recent years.  In fact there were tons of foreigners, Germans, Swiss, Americans...  Alba is a lovely little city of about 30,000 that is the epicenter of the wine and food region in Northern Italy.  There are gorgeous boutique shops, a boatload of restaurants, hotels and galleries.  It's here that the annual truffle festival takes place.  To think that when I first came to Italy, 30 some years ago, Alba was a rundown hole-in-the-wall agricultural town.  The enogastronomic business has brought gobs of money to the area.  Right now it's asparagus season so we went to get a few bunches and see friends in the area.  Of course all of this made us hungry so we came home and cooked and had a little wine..

 setting up for lunch

tasting site

Ferrero, home of Nutella!

Today we went hiking in Gran Paradiso, the first national park established in Italy.  It's in the mountains northwest of here near the French border.  About an hour in to our walk we saw a den under a large rock with baby boars!  Big boars are some damned ugly, but baby boars are adorable with big eyes and spiky hair sticking straight up.  After some squeals of fright from them and some squeals of delight from me, we "hoofed it" (pun intended) out of there as mommy boars are not only ugly but big, fast, and bad tempered.  Every once in a while we hear about someone getting gored by a bore while out hiking.  Not my idea of a good time.  We passed through lots of tiny enclaves, a few lower ones still occupied, of stone houses and farms built right up against the rock, some seeming to be growing out of the mountain.  We even found a little church that is still maintained though I wouldn't trust it in an earthquake.  The forest has encroached on the buildings and the stone roofs have fallen in.  There's moss growing inches thick on every surface.  It's sort of spooky and primeval. 

first little inhabited enclave

higher up abandoned village

little church

Tomorrow spring cleaning!  xxoo me