As I sit back here in shanghai looking out over a drizzly, muggy, polluted skyline I find it hard to believe that only a few weeks ago  I was ciao-ing our way through the outrageously scenic Tuscan and Umbrian countryside. Blue sky, fresh air and even fresher pasta seem like another life away. Being into […]

I hadn’t long landed back in Serralunga d’Alba after my two weeks in Tuscany when I was off again to Monforte, just across the valley, this time to watch Chiara Boschis of Barolo producer E.Pira plant a new vineyard.

After visiting 41 Chianti Classico cantina over 11 days I now feel a certain grasp on what’s going on among the Tuscan hills. I also got a grip on the twists and turns in the road, aided and abetted by my mate Tom (Tom). True ‘he’ occasionally threatened to lead me up the garden path, […]

It may be May but it feels distinctly like April here in Piemonte, as the extended winter looks to have shunted the seasons back; so a chilly and damp reception for all my feathered friends that have now dropped in to say hello (nightingale, hoopoe, bee-eater, turtle dove, white-bellied alpine swift, hobby…)