nonnaB

Although we live in a wine growing province I know little about wine apart from drinking it of which is Barbera.We have at least 6-7 wine producers near us.All are available for tours and tasting. Foreigners come from everywhere for their wine even USA when they visit their summer home in the village. Apparently on Saturday alone 30.000 people were in the top part of the village and as we were voted one of the most beautiful villages in Italy we had a bumper festival.

My dads wine had that effect too.

Our Wine festival has just finished tonight. Food and wine , what more do you want. There were 22 wine producers from around this area and 22 groups offering different types of food from Tagliatelle to sandwiches. My daughter made Gnocchi with Castelmagno and cream sauce. She went through 14 forms of cheese each weighing about 8 kg . My son didn’t participate and decided just to keep his restaurant open and serve drinks and cocktails. He said he’d gone through almost 11 liters of Gin. There were street musicians playing all 3 days each one different from the others. To start we bought our win

Yesterday tremendous storm with unbelievable hail. Floods everywhere in this area. Tonight the wine festival starts for 3 days and the streets are full of mud and debris. The cleanup started very early this morning but it’s going to be difficult to get everywhere sorted before 7.30 pm. We had water entering in the house. A drain in a store area the force of the water lifted the lid. Water also came through a skylight window and ruined a dining table. So let’s start to enjoy this wine festival , get drunk and forget the b….y rain. At least for 3 days before it starts again. We did open the pool

Mrs B you really were lucky. This morning it was just spitting lightly then the sun came out. Unbelievable, I hoped it would spread to Emilia Romagna. It’s heart breaking to see the sadness of the residents there. Some haven’t even got a change of clothes because they were covered in mud even up to 3rd story of their apartments. The car rally was noisy, we walked up to the corner to watch a little and that was enough. They came through our short cut which is a windy hilly narrow road not enough room for 2 cars to pass. The summit is uphill and they had to turn left uphill immediately and tu

CT we have a car rally tomorrow and it’s still raining hard. Last year they left skid marks along all the lanes uphill and downhill Hope they don’t skid off the roads as there are ditches and “ cliffs hangers” practically at every bend. Expecting to put a Private Property notice as loads of cars park outside the house and we can’t get out of the gate

Thank you heard today that it’s going to continue until June around the end Hope they’re wrong

I don’t know what it’s like in UK but here we’re getting fed up with the weather. We’ve had no rain for months on end now we’ve got rain, rain and more rain. It’s not stopped for 2-3 weeks and is forecast again for the next weeks. We are all feeling sad for Emilia Romagna because the floods there have caused such a major catastrophe. 300.000 evacuated, some deaths, too many. And still it hasn’t stopped raining. Now we have an alert as Piemonte has areas where there are floods or risk of floods. Sorry I know it hasn’t anything to do with Nottingham and many won’t be interested but had to sha

The Italian comments about the guests dress sense isn’t worth repeating. Some of the women looked as though they were dressed to open the front door. Very disappointed in them . Camilla was strange I thought not really sure what to do although I suppose she’d been instructed on procedure. But I thought the Coronation was really beautiful and I was proud to tell my friends and in-laws that Britain was the only country in the world to keep up the tradition. Only thing was watching it on Italian TV that when the English commentator was speaking and describing the Italian reporters were talking ov

I know what the situation is in UK but I still consider my “home” . Im very happy living in a beautiful smallish village but roots cling to you. I love the sun , the food, the people that know me by name and sight and enquire how I am . Maybe it’s my age reminiscing. I don’t know if anyone feels the same but since I had my 80 th birthday I feel different but don’t know why. No doubt this will pass come the real weather.

I was determined not to get a PP but wished to go to uk . Maybe to Ireland tho.

Passed the last few days trying to find a way to get to UK. Deciding to get passport difficulties have occurred with UK ones as well as Italian ones. Fed up of being treated as a foreigner according to UK officials. Damn Brexit i don’t think you knew what you were doing when you voted. But you’ve lost a lot of travel visitors.

Sad to hear about the terrible earthquake and wonder if people we know are ok. Watched the rescue of a boy 12 years old and it was to say the least dramatic and emotional. Don’t know if this is a “ knock on effect” or what but today is the second day we’ve had a close encounter. The first one was about 15 km away at 11.35 pm. My daughter felt it and saw the doors on a cupboard open, the second one was this morning at about 4.30. We aren’t in a sismic area but we have had them. The year we came to live here we had quite a big one which sent a shock right through the centre of the house. We w

I second that PP. When we first came to live here in 1971 I made a steak and kidney pie ( without kidneys). !! My in-laws were mad about it. Every thing I make into a pie is devoured. Pastry is simple but everyone asks me how I make it and how many eggs are in it. No no no, a kilo of flour 500g of margarine and lard mixed salt and cold water don’t over mix. No matter what I say it never turns out for them . They obviously haven’t got the touch of the British!

A chihuahua

My day started badly. I took one of my dogs to be washed and trimmed early this morning. I got her out of the car and crossed the road. It’s my nieces shop and she saw me coming and opened the door. Her dog Nana was sprawled out in front of the desk. Lily my dog stopped and as she turned round she slipped her harness and ran across the road into a busy car park. Both my nieces and another assistant ran out and someone pointed up the road and there she was on the pavement not knowing where to go. I called her and as usual came to me straightaway. What a relief. In the few seconds before I cross

Breakfasts , Italy doesn’t really have a great selection of cereals but the better ones are always British. The others I’ve never heard of but I do like porridge Quaker white oats and was surprised to find them. They make fantastic flapjacks too.

Yes they are Lizzie we have one in the bedroom. ( which used to be the lounge) Ours has 3 outlets that blow out the heat in other rooms.

Had a scare yesterday morning. In my car I heard such a loud bang. I knew I hadn’t bumped into anything but looked in my rear mirror and saw what the damage was. A man was walking towards almost on his knees with apologies. He hadn’t looked before opening his own car door and knocked my wing mirror to bits. Whilst we were discussing I saw the carabinieri coming slowly towards us so I stopped them and they took over. The result was he wanted to pay there and then but he said he had problems as he had a rented car. Then he just wanted to exchange phone numbers. The carabinieri wrote everything d

We aren’t vegetarians but we do eat a lot of veg. With just a few ingredients you can create a very tasty meal. Here we do have a good variety of vegetables though so it does make it easy. The other day I emptied the fridge and picked 2 fennel bulbs 2 carrots and 1 potato , it made a really nice soup. Crusty bread to accompany it what more do you want.

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Yesterday afternoon i wanted to make some rum butter to use with the mince pies id made. As i sat at the kitchen table having a cuppa my husband brought in a bottle of rum ready to add to the butter and sugar. A few minutes later my sons family came in and promptly sat down eyeing the tin of mince pies. They were in a Heroes chocolate box ( tin) mince pies up to the brim. We got glasses out and a couple of cocacolas and little by little the bottle was emptied and only a few mince pies were left. So now im left with rum butter and no mince pies. Oh well we wont be eating them tonight , not afte