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| Little streets in Mango |
On the road by 8.30 as another
long drive to get north and try to beat the heat, using the autostrada most of
the way. The first section was through the coastal hills, at times catching glimpses
of the wonderful beaches around Cinque Terre. Knew there were a lot of tunnels,
so kept a tally along with their lengths and ended up going through 61 tunnels
totally 47 km and that was in a 110km drive!!
Found a well reviewed camping
site in Park4Night at a vineyard in the Piedmont region, not as cool as we
wanted but couldn’t resist visiting it after reading the reviews. Jilly in all
her wisdom took us through some very narrow roads for the last 5 km’s, winding
up the hills surrounded by vines. But only met two cars, in the afternoon
everyone is resting!
What a spot, we are parked in
front of the winery, with panoramic views down over the vine covered hills with
a very pleasant breeze and a very friendly welcome from Maria. We settled in
and put our feet up for a few hours before walking up to the village of Mango,
only 10 minutes away. It was like stepping back in time, the little winding
streets with small shops dotted amongst the houses. Found a wee supermarket to
buy some fruit, just delightful, the girl used an adding machine to total our
goods! We just loved it, once again a piece of the real Italy where tourists
don’t come.
At seven Maria had invited us for
a wine tasting, the best we have every had and it was 9.30 before we
finished!!! Maria in her halting English spent a lot of time talking to us
about the Piedmont region, especially this area which is called Langhe. She is
passionate about it. It is renowned for its hazelnuts and truffles as well as
the wine. She explained that in Italy there are over 1500 different varieties
of grapes, and the wine is known by its individual variety. We tasted many
different wines, which were all extremely good, have a little bit of extra
weight in the van now!!!!
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| Views of the coast from the Autostrada |
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| Views from our overnight stop in the Piedmonte hills. |
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| Church in Mango |
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| Mango, very old! |
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| Wonderful Maria... |
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| ..and her husband Georgio |
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