Oh to have a swimsuit

Friday

We had another relaxing morning before leaving for the town of Acqui Terme, about a half hour drive away. We had been told that Acqui Terme was a great spa town (did I mention that I packed a swimsuit for Elena and I, but Nate didn't pack a swimsuit for himself... so we couldn't go to the spa. Grrrr!), and a fun place to go shopping. I didn't have any souvenirs yet, so I was excited to buy my latest and greatest I love Italy t-shirt, or something like that.

We arrived in A.T. and scored a fabulous parking spot (yeah!) before heading to the tourist office. Info in hand, we started walking around the city. Some vendors were out for an open air market, so we strolled and strolled, checking out the sights and scanning the merchandise. I wanted so badly to buy a 35 euro cashmere sweater, but Nate wasn't sure of the quality. I figured if we talked them down a bit, I could have a 20 euro sweater, and who cares what percent cashmere it is?! And so maybe the "made in Italy" sticker was sewn in China, ahhhh, whatever!

We moseyed through a fruit and veggie market, cheese stands, clothes, umbrellas, thread, shoes, the works before heading to a little pizzeria for lunch. I got an appetizer plate and broccoli pasta in a brie cheese sauce. Nate got a mozzarella and eggplant pizza. All in all, quite tasty, relatively cheap, and a nice place to sit out the Italian siesta.

Okay, I've probably already complained a bit about the Italian "rest time", but seriously!! From 12:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon, all of Italy just shuts down. Here we are, day after day, stuck wherever we are with absolutely nothing to do for three hours! We were hoping to find some big "department" type stores to shop at, but there was nothing of a sort in Acqui Therma. So, we got creative and walked out to some Roman ruins. There were two different ruins, each part of what used to be an aqueduct. The history buff in me got a bit excited, just imagining what used to be there. I tried to get Nate to imagine ancient Rome, but he just commented that it looked like someone had done some poor brickwork.

We sat on a bench, Nate holding a sleeping Elena, resting his head on my lap, in the sun, staring at ancient history. Very cool.

We strolled, and strolled, and waited, and waited, and eventually 3:30pm rolled around. We went into a little cafe and got some drinks (me a grapefruit strawberry pop and Nate a coffee), and then went back on the streets. By this point all of the vendors had cleared away, and we realized that we had already looked at most of the interesting stores in the town. So yeah, basically we stayed for three hours in a town that had nothing left for us to offer. Oh well, it ended up being sunny and semi-warm, and we still had a nice time.

On the way home we decided to stop in at a cheese-maker that one of the wine-makers we had stopped at had recommended. It took us a while to find the place (see a trend?!), but we were so glad we stopped. We asked for a cheese-tasting and were led to a small table. Wine and water were poured, and cheese was brought out on little wooden cutting boards. We started with the "newest" cheese and then moved on to the old (stinky) cheeses. All were made with milk from local goats.

I can't say that I loved all of the cheese, but it was a unique experience doing a cheese-tasting. After all of the wine-tastings, I was delighted to move onto something a bit more substantial! Oh, and after we finished the cheese, she plied us with local sweeties. I'm sure she could tell I was a sucker (look at that tire around her middle! let's offer her cookies!!! we know she won't say no!!!).

Cheese and sweet stuff in hand, we headed home. By this point we were pretty full and didn't even cook dinner. Now we're going to watch a TV show and head to bed. It's about 8:30pm, and heaven knows that we old folks can't stay up much longer. YAWN!!!!