The breakfast room at La Fabbrica dell'Oro was located across the street. Guido, our host, seems to be a one man show. This morning he is managing at least a dozen guests' coffee and breakfast orders. He does it all cheerfully, laughing and what we are now recognizing as the most unique expressive Italian mannerisms. We laugh because our brother-in-law is of Italian heritage, and we see him in so many of the Italian men. They have very characteristic, unique mannerisms. Shout out to you, Walter!
Finding our way out of Asti was easy today since we were backtracking the same way that we arrived. We circled around the enormous Piazza Campo del Palio with space to park hundreds of cars! The area supports the bus and train station. We turned onto Corsa Savona, the main and one of the few roads out of town. It is about a kilometre long and is chock-a-block full of cars. We cannot really understand why this street is not supported with a bike lane. There is parking on each side of the street and all the cyclists traveled easily with the speed of the traffic, if not faster. Crossing over the river and the A33 we turned right onto the quieter SP59 that runs parallel to the busy highway and breathe a bit easier.
The sun was coming out and Pat had to rethink her layering twice in the first few kilometres. It is actually hot! Today's ride was a short 30 kilometres to Neive, a historic village that is known as one of the nicest villages in the Piemonte region and even Italy as a whole. The route was on roads shared with cars and a number of full-sized trucks. Sometimes it was great riding and in other sections, a bother. After a while we became a bit numb to it all. Asti and nearby Alba are quite large centres in Piemonte and Turin is a mere 56 km away. So, we had no choice but to accept the traffic, but we did wish for proper road shoulders!
The ride was quick and with one final push up the hill we arrived at Neive. It before 1 pm and we stopped in the centre for a coffee. Such a pretty small town. It will be easy to see in a single afternoon. As it turned out our hotel, Hotel Castelbourg was just around the corner. Our accommodation was ready, so we move our panniers to our second floor room. It was one of the nicest stays of our trip - with a beautiful large room and a view of the church bell tower. We liked it so much and with a poor weather forecast for tomorrow, we immediately asked for another night. Unfortunately, the small hotel was full. Our hosts checked the other nearby hotels, but sadly we were told that the whole village was sold out for Friday night. Something about a truffle festival! The nearest place is just over a kilometre away out of town. We hoped for a cancellation, but our host shook her head. Not likely she explained. We thought about our options as we explored Neive on a lovely warm afternoon. How could it possibly rain tomorrow?
Stopping to adjust our layers at a gate with a dog in the yard is usually not the best choice. As it turns out this dog only wanted to be petted. Very sweet dog.
There was a large outdoor market at Castagnole delle Lanze that sold everything from house wares to underwear. But the seafood booth was special for me.
Second dog of the day. This one we thought might be a ¨town dog¨ as it hung around the restaurants. But the locals did not recognize him, and he was friendly but a bit of a bother to cyclists and other dogs. On his collar was a large GPS tag so someone must be tracking him.
Truffles were to blame for our lack of accommodation here in Neive. These are two black truffles. Zoom in to see the price! Yes that is 100 Euros for the big one!!
Neive clock tower has been knocked down several times since the 1200's in battles between communes allied with Asti and Alba. Every time, it was rebuilt higher.
