Unwinding on Monday

Wanting to walk and stretch out a little, we took a hiking trail to Treiso, only a couple of km away. The path went behind the Ada Nada vineyards, and past Analisa and Elvio’s house, The firs part was pretty steep and we looked at each other…”Are we going to make it?” Forge ahead, we need to get ourselves in shape! Much to our delight we found the path lined with apple, pear and fig trees laden with fruit, We plucked a few and ate them along the way,. With a good effort we made it to town and had a little rest while watching the schoolchildren in smocks in their playground. We sat under a chestnut tree. At our feet were scores of round, brown chestnuts. If only we had a place to roast them!
Back at Ada Nada with arms full of fruit- we ran into our next door neighbors. A retired couple from Dublin, they had taken a ferry to Cherbourg, then driven through France and then to Italy. They were loading their car with great wine to take back to Ireland. We hit it off and wound up inviting them in for a glass of wine with us and what turned out to be a lively discussion of American politics and their experience with house-swapping. Conclusion- Bush is an idiot, Obama a rookie, Hilary was the best, No wonder I liked Eileen and Frank. We had reservations for dinner in Monchiero at Tra Arte e Querche and we had to hit the road shortly after our neighbors left. This was supposed to be “the place’” for white truffles and the owner was a truffle hunter himself.

Dinner at Tra Arte e Querche
The menus are quite limited at the places we have been to so far. No exception here…Dan had vitello tonnato (again) and I wanted some veggies, so ordered a salad. It came out as chopped celery with shaved cheese on top. OK, but not what I had in mind, Danny says vitello tonnato is off his list from now on. Then, the moment we were waiting for—pasta con trufulo! The owner came out with a covered jar and we got the truffle aroma. He shaved the truffle on our hot pasta with butter. After a few bites it seemed the Emperor had no clothes. It was bland, and we wound up sprinkling it with grated cheese.
What a letdown. Main courses were pork short ribs (overdone) and filleto (beef) with herbs. Not impressive at all. Dessert was very mediocre, peaches in some wine and cocoa, and whipped cream with torrone chunks and chocolate sauce,. It sounds better than it was, The wine however was superb. We splurged on a Barolo that was velvety, dry and complex. No disappointment here!