Friday, November 25, 2011

Barbaresco

We decided to return from  Switzerland with a stop in the Barbaresco wine area. Lunch, we decided, should be in Laglio on Lake Como....

in hopes of running into George Clooney, who has a lakeside home there! ( Supposedly he likes to dip in the lake with fellow actors/actresses and we were hoping!!!) Needless to say we did not see him!  But probably went past his home!

We had lunch at the restaurant La Locande del Cantiere which may have been fairly close by!


It was fine for lunch but their photographs of their location relative to the lake leads one to believe that they are overlooking it! They are....... but the main lakeside road is in between!!! No problem... we enjoyed our lunch there!
Then on to our hotel near Barbaresco, after a brief stop in Asti ( which was OK.. we didn't feel we were missing anything by not staying longer!!).
We chose this particular hotel because we have had Barbaresco wines in the past and have liked them! Knew nothing really about the area!
Al Vecchio Tre Stelle  was more a roadside inn with rooms than a hotel in its own right!!


 However we were very surprised and delighted to find that the food was wonderful!  The dining room was completely full for dinner, almost all Italians! The bedroom was rather outdated, but had a certain charm!  And a fantastic view over the vineyards.


It was also very close to Alba where we had decided to spend a day...
They also own a boutique hotel in Alba, the Palazzo Finati which we might be tempted to try next time!

While in Alba we found that it had a surprising 'outlet'....... Missoni!!  I was delighted to find that it was open on a Sunday, but only because of the Donkey Palio(!) which was being held that day.



Before you go rushing off to Alba for Missoni! .....it was still very expensive!! But about a third of normal prices! And had definitely more choice for me than the Prada 'outlet' south of Florence! This seems to have become a size 2 and has a 'young girl' orientation! Some years ago I bought a lot there. This year nothing! However I had better luck at Missoni!! The people at Missoni, Alba were not too enthusiastic about the quality of the Missoni clothes now being marketed by Target!
We ate at a Michelin rated restaurant in Barbaresco the second night, the Ristorante Antine


 and wished we had stayed in the hotel!! It only had  people  at  3 of its tables...  and no-one was Italian!! And the food.... it was OK good, but not exceptional!  We definitely had better food on the prior night! And were annoyed with ourselves for not staying in for the second night!!Also we were definitely not too impressed as to how they handled the wine.  The red was only opened after a long time.... sitting there being watched (diligently!) by us!! And trying to catch their eye to open it!!And it wasn't as if they were exceptionally busy!! And we were in Barbaresco!!!
The local Enoteca for their wines was interesting!

They obviously decided they had one church too many and it would be more productive selling their wines!!

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