Day Two of my Excellent Italian Adventure

I have so many photos taken already it is difficult to narrow it down to just a few to show you. But let's take a look at these ones.

 In the morning I was delighted to be able to ride along with Manu and Randy into Turino (Turin) where Manu had a business appointment at an old monastery. This property has been the home of the Brotherhood of the Sacred Family since the late 1600's. Named Villa Brea it was once the property of the wealthy Brea family, then the Jesuits who sold it to the current Brotherhood more than 300 years ago. The chapel can be seen above.

 The Brothers have a large property (11 acres) and still maintain a good sized garden including this very long grape arbor.

The rain spouts over the front entrance fascinated me.

 Back at the vineyard the artists were hard at work. I'm thinking they have just as much difficulty trying to choose what to paint as I do in choosing what to photograph, but Jill started a small piece including the sunflowers which had been purchased in the market on Saturday.

 As the dinner hour was approaching it was clear a storm was also. Just look at that sky in the west.

 And these fast developing clouds that captured our attention in the east. If you click on this photo to see it larger you might notice a treed area in among the grapevines. Those are hazelnut trees which is another product of this region. The spread Nutella began and is still headquartered here. Our cookie platter at dessert featured some divine hazelnut cookies sandwiched together with Nutella.

 We had plenty to divert our attention from the approaching storm. Aren't those sunflowers glorious? Look at that bloom on the lower left.

 As we ate our dinner the storm blew by with just a very small amount of rainfall right here at the vineyard. However it was like eating dinner accompanied by the 1812 Overture what with the thunder, lightening and the cannons going off. Cannons you ask?  Yes, the threat of hail is enough to make the agricultural cannons fire off - they change the atmosphere somewhat to take away the potential for hail which would do very bad damage to the grapevines. After the storm the sky looked pretty again and the lights coming on all over the area made for a special evening.

It was a very long and fun evening meal. We were treated to a salad/appetizers buffet followed by a delicious lasagne al forno con carne. Dessert was a local specialty, bunet, which is made from hazelnuts, amaretto and cocoa. The cookie platter was in there somewhere!

I see lots of speed walking in my future when I get home to overcome all these incredibly tasty meals.