Birthday Celebrations

Today was a very significant birthday for Lincoln.  After a quick visit upstairs (L, A & O have a 2 storey cottage above ours) to wish Lincoln a happy birthday, Brian and I headed off down the hill - through narrow winding cobbled streets and stairways, to the main piazza at the centre of our village for coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice (spremuta) and "una pasta" - this one was an apple-filled croissant-style pastry.  All delicious.  

Then a bit of exploring and a long walk around the village - into the church and up to the very top of the town where the old church is located and a small, modern amphitheatre has been built.

And for an alfresco birthday lunch, we all drove to Barolo - a beautiful, elegant little village about 6km away, that is the centre of Piedmont wine.  We all had simple but beautiful food (Brian and I both had fresh tagliatelle with a ragu) with bread and coffee, and then strolled around Barolo before returning home for an afternoon rest. 

And at 6pm, everyone congregated on our front verandah for a bottle of Crystal 2005 champagne which we bought in Epernay, with some grissini, anchovies, salami and olives - followed by our first bottle of Borollo - just as our landlady Marina and her daughter Federica, a qualified chef, and our caretaker Margherita arrived with a car load of food and disappeared upstairs to L, A & O's cottage to prepare dinner.  The room and table was beautifully decorated and the dinner they provided for us was superb:

• Beef Carpaccio
• Tomino cheese parcels (wrapped in paper) with pear, walnut and honey
• Fresh spinach mound (they called it a flan) covered with a fondata cheese béchamel sauce
• Home made agnialotti pasta del plin
• Braised rabbit served on roasted peppers with a fabulous white wine jus
• Boneta tart - a soft chocolate panna cotta
• Chocolate birthday torta which we bought in Torino yesterday from the Baratti & Milano cafe
• Espresso coffee

What a fabulous dinner, served with some unbelievably good Barolo wines provided by Lincoln and Andy  Then Marina's husband Gianni joined us and we had another round of singing before all of our Italian friends left (having washed all of the dishes, leaving the kitchen spotless) and the real party began!  

Lots of loud music, dancing, singing, ridiculous behaviour and screams of laughter.  This has been such a fabulous day and one which Lincoln loved.