It’s hard to believe almost two weeks have gone by since my last post. Life is finally starting to feel normal again with a few added safety measures. We can actually plan activities in our region for our free time and dream about a future when things are truly back to normal. I am still at home most of the time fussing about when the school year will come to an end, worrying about my graduating senior who is ready to move on to bigger adventures (look out Santa Monica CA.) gardening, cooking, cleaning… all of the things that need to be done on a daily basis regardless of what’s going on in the world. Sometimes I manage to forget that we are still in a state of semi-quarantine until I walk out the door to go to the store. As soon as I get to the end of my block and actually see someone that isn’t a neighbor, I think, oops, I forgot my mask! I run back home to put it on, and walk into town to do what I need to do. It’s so easy to forget on a sunny day at home that you need a mask to go out, I finally just put some extras in the car. I should put some in my handbag as well, but I like my reusable mask best so I always forget. This new state of semi-normality, feels lovely, and over the weekend, we went on our first real outing, one that required more than a 15 minute drive. We decided to go into the wine country to take a hike which is roughly an hour away, to the town of La Morra, which overlooks the rolling hills of the Langhe. In 2014, UNESCO made this region a world heritage site but I fell in love with it long before that. La Morra was my first introduction to the wine country of Piemonte, with my new found friends a few months after arriving in Italy in 1997, Cappe, who had worked as a tour guide all over the world, took me up to it’s magnificent viewpoint, stretched his arms out wide referring to the view, and said “this is the Langhe.“

Our day of wandering through the vineyards was peaceful and strangely, it was the first time I have ever gone to the Langhe and not drunk wine which is one of the things it is most known for. Perhaps I will write about the wine another day. Our day was all about stretching our legs, spending time together, enjoying a picnic lunch in the shade of a small church and taking in the scenery. Unless you are going for specific festivals, you can usually find relative peace here even when other places are crawling with tourists. Here is a map if you decide to go for yourself, we took the route outlined in yellow.

I hope your have enjoyed this short visual trip into the Langhe. As always, please share your comments. It helps me come up with new ideas on what to write about. Always a work in progress…

Be Well and Stay Healthy from wherever you are in the world!