Alba and Dogliani (Palmabella's Passions)

Alba and Dogliani

We arrived in Alba just before noon, and had 30 minutes of power shopping before the shops closed.

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I manged to hightail it straight to Luisa Spagnoli for a top, hit a couple food/wine shops for some crema di tartufo, and still buy us a second Italian cell phone, so Brad and I will each have one for our PalmabellasItaly trip next summer. We walked to the two main piazze and the duomo, stopped for coffee, but were not ready for lunch.

We left Alba, and went to see a town Brad was interested in because of it's great dolcetto. Diana confirmed that Dogliani was a charming town, so we found our way there, and we were indeed charmed. It has become our favorite second only to Acqui!

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We parked by the cathedral, and had a quick panino and dolcetto. We wandered through the streets of this authentic, working town with quite nice amenities. It seemed very livable, as there were quality shops, lovely restaurants, two florists, a cinema, a castle near a beautiful palazo, and a wonderful bar with a dozen local men gathered in front. We stopped and chatted with them in Italian (one of my FAvORITE things to do), as they proudly told us about there town of 4, 800 residents.

One church was octogonal and had a bright red bell tower.

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We visited the beautiful duomo and lit some special candles, and thanked St Anthony for getting my laptop back to me intact!

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We enjoyed the beautiful scenic route home that Diana had suggested. There was gorgeous scenery, vineyards, lots of nut orchards, and tiny towns with castles and stunning little churches.

Time for naps, showers and blogs before dinner!