Friday at Alba

This morning Brian and I headed off to Alba - about 30 minutes away - for coffee and a bit of shopping.  What a different city it is on Friday compared with last Sunday when we came to the truffle market.  We parked right in the middle of town, everything was quiet, all of the shops were open and there were very few people around.  We had coffee and "una pasta" in a lovely small cafe with local people, walked around a few of the beautiful streets and piazzas, went into a tiny 17th century church (it was beautiful), bought an English/Italian dictionary (I left mine in Subi) and a loaf of bread for lunch, and then headed into a gorgeous toy shop to buy a tiny little furry kangaroo!

Today is Marina's birthday and we have shared so many jokes with her and her family about kangaroos - it started on Monday when Oscar told Marina and her family that he rides one to university every day!  Then to a florist shop to buy a bunch of flowers - a transaction which lasted for at least 40 minutes as a previous order was finished off, we were introduced to other people who entered the shop and long conversations (in Italian of course) about everyone's world travels - including the opportunity to view 3 books of photos taken by the florist in Turkey, South America and somewhere else (we managed to slip that book under one of the others), and a very slow approach, with great attention to detail, in the preparation of our flowers.  

Anyway, the bouquet looked beautiful and we headed back home (taking a wrong turn on the way and ending up in a narrow dead-end street in the middle of Barolo), arriving just in time for lunch served on the balcony of Anka, Lincoln and Oscar's cottage - pasta with parmesan and the rest of the 50g white truffle we got from Marina's husband, fabulous salads prepared by Anka and Suzie, bread, grissini and a bit more Barolo wine, followed by coffee and the rest of last night's dessert and birthday cake. 



And then Marina arrived to say goodbye to us all.  She loved the kangaroo, flowers and birthday card which we'd all signed - hugs and kisses all round - and then an afternoon of packing and resting before heading out to another great dinner in our village - at Osteria dei Catari (seemed like an appropriate name based on the owner's pet which was asleep on a satin cushion in the corner when we arrived and then visited our table during dinner).  

What a great week this has been - however I don't think that any of us could possibly survive one more day of this hectic lifestyle!