This is our B and B, and it has been in this family since 1897
and our breakfast was fresh fruit, yogurt, juice and cappucino...
Our host, Lucca, then showed us the cave for his 500 Culatello thighs produced each year:
A great feeling being down in the cool cave that has housed these cuts of pork for over 112 years...
Jim is showing his sweat marks from his early morning bike ride...a macho dude or what?...Just outside our B and B is a levee that you can safely ride bicycles for over 30 miles in any direction...mostly hugging the Po River. It truly is a beautiful feature of this area. As a result, we all rented bikes ($8 for the whole day)...
We rode round trip for 16 miles or so, returning to Verdi land and enjoying lunch outdoors...
The ride home was hot...which caused Jim to go "native"
It is taking all the constraint I can muster just to keep my promise to Jim that I won't post the next picture...yep, the "rear" view of this outfit....suffice it to say that if you look closely at the above photo you can probably tell how far down his shorts had come...ok here it is...no...yes...no...yes....NO...I promised so the answer is no...I'll leave it to your imagination...or a small contribution to Christian Life Academy and we'll see what's possible:))) No never, I can't be swayed from my promise...
The ladies were super troopers throughout the day, handling the heat like it was a small plate of culatello...
A great shower...a second great shower....ice cold water in the shower to drop the body temp 30 degrees back to near normal...and then we were ready for dinner...Ok, so I forgot to mention one of the most incredible additions to Culatello, aside from butter, which is called Torta Fritta....we had this in Parma with the Prosciutto as well, but these super sized fried treats were amazingly light and delicious:
Then came the world famous pasta and porcini...it was sooo good yesterday we had to have more...
and more pasta...ravioli filled with meat...
and more pasta
the above was with beans...pasta fagioli...then we had their capon, fried and perfectly prepared
We finished the eating portion of the meal with strawberries smothering vanilla gelato...
The two foodies were really in their element:)))
Then came our host, Lucca, with some of his favorite post dinner treats...
One made from figs (Bagno Ligno?), one from walnut (Nocino) and the third from 7 herbs (Verdino)...with his best coming from the cellar after we shared a bit of our Piemonte purchased Genepi with him...his 1992 walnut digestif...his home made Nocino
A delicious combination of food and beverage, just like the locals...and all outside. While not alongside Lake Como or overlooking the mountains, we were housed under this canopied dining area with multiple ceiling fans...and we were really enjoying this portion of our trip. By the way, our table was the third one back in the middle, surrounded by 4 perfectly placed, quiet, high speed fans...yep...the Power table!!!
Tomorrow will find us riding around to enjoy a few local towns...but for now, ciao bella to you...our dear friends...
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