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Since we've been living here, we've discovered that the shortest day here in Italy isn't that short at all. When we bundle up at half past seven this morning, December 21st, to go for a walk with Noor, it's already getting light. After a freezing cold night, we enjoy the view over the frost-covered fields on our way. And just now, at five o'clock, after our afternoon walk, it's still light enough to spot two roe deer at the end of our field. How fortunate: the winters here last a month less and it stays light for longer during the day.

A saying from the far north of the Netherlands is: ‘just stop worrying, it always turns out differently anyway’. This proves to be true once again as Sander has to renew his passport. If you live abroad, you can renew your Dutch passport at the Dutch embassy in that country or at a number of municipalities in the Netherlands itself. It is expected that this – very typically Dutch – will go very efficiently. But nothing could be further from the truth. Due to staff shortages in the Netherlands, waiting times for applying for a new passport have increased to eight to eighteen weeks! For Sander, who chose to collect his passport at Schiphol, it ultimately takes twelve weeks. Fortunately, Sander is well in time. But forewarned is forearmed. When my passport's expiry date is approaching, I'll nicely start the application procedure six months in advance...

Exactly the opposite happens when applying for our Italian driving licences. If you live in Italy, your Dutch driving licence – when it needs to be renewed – is replaced by an Italian driving licence. We are warned in advance that the application can take three to four months. With that in mind, we decide to start the application process before the end of this year, as Sander's licence expires in May and mine expires at the end of 2025. It's quite a thing, renewing your driving licence in Italy, and it's also regionally dependent. We live in Liguria and there you first have to go to your GP to obtain a health certificate. Read: you go to your GP, ask for a certificate and then expect a health check, but you receive ‘Alone‘A positive nod from your GP, and then the form is printed out and signed (no blood pressure check or anything like that is involved). Anyway, with that document, you then go to a driving school. For your information, there's one in Cairo Montenotte, for example, right on Piazza della Vittoria. There, we hand in the medical document, a passport photo, and our Dutch driving licence. After everything has been checked ‘on the spot’, the driving school schedules an appointment with a doctor for an eye test. We can be seen a few days later.

Of course, we have no idea what exactly to expect and I find it quite a bit exciting. The doctor's appointment takes place in the driving school. Upon entering, there are already several people waiting for us. We receive a number and take a seat in a classroom to wait for our number to be called out. In a separate room, fortunately not ‘en plein publique’, a doctor then takes the eye test. First, the doctor asks for some details and then I have to read out a number of letters on a screen (just like at the optician's): first with my left eye (which, fortunately, goes very well) and then with my right eye (which also goes well, until I notice that at the last letter I automatically lift my hand away from my left eye for mental assistance from my right ...uhm. Fortunately, the doctor doesn't notice - probably also due for an eye test). Anyway, both Sander and I myself are approved and that means our application can officially be sent and now all we have to do is have ‘pazienza’. We are utterly amazed when a week later we have all our new coveted Italian driving licences in our hands. Out and home within two weeks! That ‘saying-from-the-high-north’ turns out to be a truism.

The past year has been one in which we are noticeably and tangibly reaping the rewards of all the hard work of previous years. We've been able to welcome many new and returning guests, and at the same time, we're experiencing more peace and less pressure without major renovations and the administrative hassle of permits. We've also had visits from family and friends in the Netherlands, and from my niece Pam and her husband Jeff from Canada! It's so precious and we're so grateful that they're bridging this distance to visit us. We also have more time to explore the area, including beautiful cities like Cuneo and Bordighera.

Not only we, but nature too is getting a breather. Thanks to sufficient rain, nature is more beautiful and abundant than ever and we barely need to water anything (which really saves us a lot of time each day). Sander can now concentrate 100% % on Pian del Nasso, which also gives me breathing room. In the middle of our season, I can even go on a trip to Canada with my sister Nanny to visit our family; Sander will very kindly be in charge at PDN. What a blessing. As far as I’m concerned, every year could be like this!

At the same time, Sander and I are saying to each other that 2024 is also ‘un anno particolare’ with several – thankfully never before experienced – incidents in our normally so peaceful valley. So, on a Saturday evening, after our busy changeover day, Sander and I are sitting under the ‘portico’ enjoying the view, when around 9:30 PM we hear the heavy sound of a lorry (believe me, a very unusual sound here in the evening). When we go to investigate, we see a fire engine with blue flashing lights parked in our car park. Oh no, surely not..?! A resident from our neighbouring village, Lodisio, has raised the alarm because they saw smoke. The firefighter explains that he has parked the fire engine with us so that he can maintain contact from there with a second fire engine driving to Lodisio. Fortunately, it turns out to be a false alarm – someone is burning their rubbish –‘Thank goodness’We need to recover from it for a bit.

On another Saturday evening – our new guests have only just settled in properly – suddenly the siren of an ambulance sounds, another ambulance, the siren of a fire engine, another fire engine, a police car and just when you think nothing else can possibly happen, a helicopter flies over (and then the Pian del Nasso website says it's so quiet here...!). It turns out that in our hinterland, the ‘natural park’, two seasoned quad bikers in their 70s! misjudged a bend and fell with the quad on top of them. It appears the man of the couple is seriously injured. The accident happens in an inaccessible part – where a normal car cannot reach – which is why a helicopter had to be used to transport the injured man. Fortunately, we can now report that the adventure ended reasonably well. And also good to know: we now also know that when there's an emergency, the emergency services are impressively quick on the scene!

A month later, in September, we have an emergency with one of our guests. In advance, we really look forward to this visit, as it is the first time we will have guests with a Bernese Mountain Dog. A complete déjà vu for us, of course: we spent our holidays at the Mulino in that composition for ten years. First with our Bernese Nous and later with Dasti (we have only had our Noor since we lived here). So we really enjoyed getting to know Nuncio and his owners. But a few hours after they have installed themselves in the Mulino, Nuncio's mistress anxiously knocks on our door because Nuncio is not feeling well. Sander walks along and Nuncio turns out to be completely apathetic. Sander immediately knows it's wrong and asks me to call a vet (quite a challenge on a Saturday night). I call several. Fortunately, Nadia and her daughters are also thinking along. Eventually, we find a vet in Montechiaro d'Acqui willing to examine Nuncio. Sander takes our guests and Nuncio there. It is then 7pm. Meanwhile, I sit at home anxiously awaiting news. X-rays show that Nuncio has a stomach torsion and he needs immediate surgery (stomach torsion is life-threatening and after six hours the risk of death increases). We are lucky to have this very knowledgeable (coincidentally Swiss - Bernese dogs are originally from Switzerland) vet. Thanks to quick and skilled intervention, Nuncio comes out of the operation well and, as it turns out later, without any consequences. We and Nuncio's owners are more than grateful to the vet. We are so happy when Nuncio is back in the Mulino around 11 pm. He has to take it easy for the time being, so that means rehabilitation at Pian del Nasso. We get to visit the sick the next day. So nice to see Nuncio just walking up to greet us! He spends the rest of the holiday rehabilitating and relaxing with his owners at Pian del Nasso. We find it very nice and an honour that Nuncio will come to PDN again next year. This time he will hopefully be able to run around the fields of Pian del Nasso and enjoy long walks in the area.

All's well that ends well! Life here at PDN is never dull. We certainly look back on this year and our season with so many happy and satisfied guests with great pleasure. That's what we do it for! We are now noticing that Pian del Nasso is gaining a growing fan base, which we see reflected in the many bookings we have already received for 2025!

This year we're celebrating Christmas at Pian del Nasso. We can once again look forward to a true feast with our neighbours. This time, Sander has been officially asked to make the dessert.‘dolce‘to make. As far as I'm concerned, this means we are now fully integrated! From Pian del Nasso, we wish everyone a very happy and, above all, relaxing few days and a peaceful, loving, and healthy 2025.

January

It is mid-January and we have temporary staff augmentation. The helpers are suddenly there; no recruitment and selection is involved. They turn out to be natural talents; independent, proactive and hard workers. A bit grumpy perhaps, but the result is worth it. After a couple of weeks, our fields have been largely cleared of the nutritious, but very rampant Jerusalem artichoke and neatly ploughed. They have also left just enough tuberous sunflower or Jerusalem artichoke (give it a name) to assure us of a beautiful yellow wave of flowers in autumn. We are satisfied. Only downside might be a little damaged wall here and there, probably caused by a little too much enthusiasm while working or by a somewhat clumsy leaning moment during the break. But hey, they worked hard and they are and remain wild pigs. No cock crowing about it.

February

We are busy preparing for the season. We are tinkering in and around the houses and making plans on how we will run our ‘case vacanza‘ even more comfortable. Thus, the Cascina will get luxurious wooden loungers for the garden and we will place a new and larger picnic table at the Mulino. We will give the smaller picnic table a new spot in our grounds on a hill with ‘’bella vista' for guests who want to sit for a while while walking. The Cascina will have a swing cum hanging chair for two to doze off in and enjoy ‘la bella natura‘. Our swimming pool gets new sunbeds. Also, all holiday homes now have new and faster internet. And to top it all off, in just under a month our new trees, bushes and herbs will arrive. All in all, Pian del Nasso will become a little more beautiful and hopefully even more comfortable for our guests.

March

We have now lived in Italy for four years and we still have to pinch ourselves every now and then to see if it is really true. Of course, we just have our work (in the past three years even more than ever), but when, like today, we find ourselves in Cairo Montenotte for such ordinary everyday things as a visit to the accountant and the dentist, we still feel ourselves privileged to find ourselves on a sunny terrace with un caffè English un bicchiere d'acqua naturale (and all that too for just EUR 3). And no, we are not on holiday all the time, but we often have a holiday feeling. Just because we get to live in such a beautiful place in a nice environment. You have to do something for it, but then you have something.... la bella vita.

Fourteen years ago, on our very first holiday at the Mulino, I fell in love with the nature of Pian del Nasso. And I still do. The views never bore me. Whether it is morning or afternoon, autumn or summer, the sun is shining or it is raining ... every moment and every light still amazes me. I just don't get bored. And when I walk across the fields, I often jokingly think, it would only be your backyard.... The only frustrating thing is that a photograph never produces the picture of what I see in reality. But help may be on the way: this season we'll have a real photographer as a guest at Pian del Nasso, who knows, maybe I'll be able to trick him. But in any case, it seems impossible to capture all those impressions of sight, smell and sound in a picture.

Of course, not everything is always hosanna. For example, this morning, out of the blue, a technician from the water company shows up at our door saying he is coming to install new water meters. I immediately feel wet, thinking back to a few years ago when we received a bill from that same water company with an amount consisting of several zeros for one of our houses (according to Nadia, an amount impossible even if we had left all the taps in all the houses on PDN on for a year). Afterwards, it turned out that the picture of our water meter reading was switched with someone else's. Fortunately, the mistake was quickly rectified, but my suspicion is on stalks; the new water meters will have to be linked to the right house later. Just to be sure, I give a list of our houses and the current water meter numbers to the technician before he gets to work. What makes it a bit comical is that the fitter apparently grumbles about nothing in the air. Whether he just has to sit down or grab his water pump pliers, an arsenal of curses follows each time (of which 90% - thankfully - we don't understand). I still think to myself, this is how he acts when everything is going well, what will he yell when something goes wrong? Anyway, I let him be, because I have a meeting.

After finishing my work, I find the forms filled in by the mechanic with a list of the new water meters. And yes, my suspicion was not for nothing: the Mulino's new water meter turns out to be connected to the Rustico and the Rustico's has not been replaced at all. Our house did get the right new water meter (though). But how are you going to get this straightened out again? Sander and I decide to let it sink in for a day. This turns out to be a good decision, because early the next morning, when Sander takes our Noor for a walk, the white van from the water company appears in sight again - on its way, I suppose, to its next victim

Sander stands in the middle of the street to stop him. The mechanic is not necessarily happy about this delay, and when Sander has explained why he has been stopped, ‘our’ mechanic insists that all the water meters have been replaced properly. And he is in a hurry: to emphasise this, he shuffles a very thick stack of forms of all the connections he has yet to replace in the area. But Sander is unyielding. He suggests going through the pile together (the grumbling starts again, of course). After going through all the documents piece by piece, the Mulino's form appears at the very bottom. The mechanic apologises. He had overlooked it. He now suddenly understands where he went wrong. He immediately sets to work to repair the damage. Well, I probably don't need to tell you that the accompanying tirade of insults is now all over the place. ‘Porca miseria” we think sounds the most sympathetic. Anyway, a little later, all our houses have been fitted with correct new water meters. And they have a taste for it, because in addition to replacing the water meters, they have now also started to lay a completely new water supply connection for our neighbours who live kilometres uphill towards Lodisio. We can hope they don't switch connections this time. Imagine that in reality they must be kilometres downhill.

April

The new trees, shrubs and herbs arrive at Pian del Nasso. Sander immediately starts planting. Exactly the following night, the mercury suddenly drops alarmingly. From 26 degrees during the day to below freezing at night. Our new sage plants in particular don't like it and neither does our Lagerstroemia at the swimming pool, which has been producing such beautiful flowers for a couple of years now (we hope it will recover a bit). But apart from that, the damage is not too bad.

 

 

And then we are on the eve of our new season. Together with Nadia's team, we bring our holiday homes out of hibernation. Equipment is checked, Nespresso machines descaled, gutters emptied, damaged walls and or cornices repainted, etc. The furniture comes out from under the sheets and Nadia starts the initial cleaning. After that, we leave the houses alone for a few days so that any remaining dust has time to swirl down. Only then does the real cleaning follow.

 

Between works, we enjoy the sunshine. Not just between works, but also between showers. Never before did Sander and I experience such a wet spring on Pian del Nasso. We see streams and waterfalls we couldn't even guess existed. We can now see one of our streams even from our house. Great to be able to hear them flowing again. We missed that for the past two years. And great for our guests that they will soon be able to paddle in the streams again and enjoy the beautiful nature even more.

 

Of course, we also have all kinds of new tips to make our guests' stay even more pleasant. There is another list of addresses of delicious culinary restaurants in the area. We have additional links for even more hiking fun and, in our neighbouring village of Erche, a yoga centre has been set up, from which many other activities are organised. You can go there regularly for e.g. ayurvedic or shiatsu massage. Guests who like yoga can in any case indicate on arrival whether they want to join a class, and we will reserve a place. In short, it will be relaxing and lots of enjoyment. On to a beautiful summer! Verso una bella stagione!

Instead of getting ready for lunch with our neighbors Franca and Giampiero on Christmas Day, Sander has a bad case of the flu. There is nothing we can do other than unsubscribe. Also because our other neighbors Olga and Carlo, who are well over eighty, are there and we obviously don't want to light them. I'm already having nightmares about the enormous amount of food that our neighbors have prepared with so much care and are now left with. But nothing turns out to be further from the truth…. Around lunchtime the doorbell rings. Giampiero stands at the door with a bowl full of 'antipasti’ such as vitello tonnato, torta di verdura and bruchetta. It even includes table decorations in the shape of two holly plants and home-baked name cards! How thoughtful do you want it? And feel free to call it 'running lunch', because more courses follow at intervals; Giampiero brings a bowl full of steaming 'primi' consisting of lasagna and pasta with fungi and later the main course, 'il secondo' with different types of meat, vegetables and fried potatoes. And all by car, because they live more than a kilometer away from us. Finally, at the end of the afternoon we get a 'dolce' in the form of a grand dessert including nut cake, chocolate pudding and all kinds of petit fours. Who has such a luxurious Christmas lunch at home? And good! So sweet, so heartwarming! Grateful for our dear neighbors.

While I am writing this blog, Sander is on his way to the Netherlands. Actually, the four of us were going. But because we receive so much positive feedback from our guests about the sleeping comfort in the Mulino and Cascina, we do not want to be inferior in the Rustico. That means a trip to our Dutch supplier for extra top deck and bedding. And that makes it impossible for me and our Bernese to travel with us, because it simply does not fit. And so it is that this morning on this cold winter day (-7 degrees) I feel 'princely wonderful'Alone' nest in our sunny warm conservatory with a cup of coffee and Dasti and Noor at my feet, enjoying that beautiful view over our fields. With the winter sun outside, summer is already in the house.

As long as Sander and I have been in Italy, we have been amazed by the piles of stuff that you often see around the houses here. But what we find much more strange is the phenomenon that there are so many empty houses here, often with all the household furnishings of their great-great-grandparents, it seems, still in them. We also have such a house (feel free to call it a ruin) 'Flavio' with the furniture and tablecloths still visible. That is completely unthinkable in the Netherlands, especially with the current housing crisis. But now, with the renovation of the Rustico, a tip of the veil has been lifted as far as we are concerned. It turns out that it costs a fortune to properly dispose of bulky waste according to the rules. You can safely purchase a small new car for the amount of removing construction rubble for an average house. Or, as Nadia tells me, in Italy it almost costs more to dispose of a bag of cement than to purchase the same bag. Well, then you start looking at all those piles of stored things differently, and you suddenly see mountains of savings. Of course, Sander and I, true Dutchmen that we are (or is that 'woke' to write?), had everything disposed of properly according to the rules." The country's wise, the country's honor. 'But we need to recover slightly from this unexpected gross budget transfer.

After removing the construction waste, the construction phase of the Rustico follows, which is accompanied by impressive lugging sessions up the hill. My husband transports 60 packs of floor tiles weighing 25 kilos in stages. Respect! And then he also has to lay them down. The latter is a typical Pippi L. case of 'I've never done it before, so I think I can do it'. On the other hand, it is certainly not the first time he has laid floors and I have more than confidence in him. We have not yet finished bringing up the tiles, because all kitchen/bathroom equipment and new furniture will follow. It will remain a continuous process, because once the season has started, a lot of linen packages will go back and forth. The good news is; We will certainly lose all the kilos of delicious food we can eat here in Italy.

Nearby we discovered a beautiful nature park 'Parco Adelasia' with various short and long walking routes. At the entrance to the park there is a mountain hut and restaurant, Cascina Miera (www.cascinamiera.it), accessible on foot (1 km, 10 minutes) where you can start or end your walk with a delicious culinary experience. You can also explore the park on horseback. Every Sunday, guided horse riding tours are organized by appointment (contact details are known to us). Definitely worth a visit.

For those who would like to receive more tips from the area or photos of Pian del Nasso, we can also be followed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CohQcMQMNW0/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

A thick layer of snow falls in early December. It gives the already unique silence here something magical: we are in a true winter wonderland. It is cold, yes, last night it was -8. But with the thermostat at a pretty nice 17 degrees and with the wood stove on, we are still pleasantly warm. The crackling of the fire and the view of that beautiful white world puts us in the Christmas spirit.

It appears to be a tradition, at least in our valley, that neighbors bring each other presents in the run-up to Christmas. We now have a whole pile of presents here (also from Holland) that we will open on Christmas Eve.

Of course, we also go out ourselves to buy and deliver presents. This week we are in a flower shop in Cairo Montenotte. It is chock full of Christmas arrangements and plants. Movement is actually impossible without knocking over something or stepping on something. A queue appears behind us all the way to the outside. We are lucky to have only one customer in front of us. The owner - like a true Italian - cannot be deterred from her (Christmas) piece. She takes all the time to advise her customer, occasionally dives under the counter to choose a nice ribbon and answers phone calls on the speaker (also very Italian!) in between. We wait quietly; piano, piano; it's Italy. But suddenly there appears la madre, well into her eighties, but clearly young enough to assist my daughter. She beckons us enthusiastically and we hand her the Amaryllis bulb we have selected. A suitable gift, we think, because the neighbors it is intended for only use natural products (so Christmas pieces with plastic balls or a huge Christmas cake with unhealthy ingredients are not the right choice for them). The Amaryllis bulb is expertly processed la madre wrapped in beautiful Christmas paper. My daughter, who seemed very concentrated on the Christmas piece for her customer, turns out to have an eye for what is happening next to her. This results in her taking 'our' Amaryllis bulb from her mother with the words: "scusami mamma, but these are Dutch people and they are used to a multitude of flowers and greenery, this is really not possible." We still shout “it's beautiful, don't do anything about it anymore” but our bulb has already been unpacked and is slowly disappearing between the Christmas branches that she attaches to the bulb with a glue gun. She also sticks pine cones on it and finally sprays the now gigantic Christmas piece with an anything-but-natural Christmas spray! … Sander and I look at each other, we praise mother and daughter exuberantly; “siete artiste” and rush to the garden center for flower bulbs for the upstairs neighbors. The Christmas piece is now on the table of our other neighbors.

With Christmas in sight, the end of the year is of course also approaching. A moment to look back at what has happened and been achieved. In January we expanded our family with Bernese Mountain Dog Noor. A 1.5 year search. Never before have we wanted two dogs, but here with all that space and the fact that our Dasti is getting a year older (we can't imagine not having a dog) makes us decide to look for a puppy. And what a party it is with those two. Dasti had to swallow, it wasn't love at first snout, but now there is nothing as wonderful as 'un abbraccio insieme'.

The beautiful season that started early in April with (returning) guests and also with the coming and going of family and friends. It is wonderful to share this beautiful, special place with others and to see everyone so visibly enjoying what is there.

We are very happy that we can finally start the renovation of the Rustico this year and add it to our range as a fully-fledged third holiday home from next year. Three to four people have been working non-stop since September and with results; the new roof is on it, the walls have been restored in pietra, the plumber has installed the new pipes and the electricity is largely ready. We are now in the finishing phase: plastering is taking place inside and then, as soon as the new windows have been installed, tiling can take place. It will be a picture in combination with that unique place on Pian del Nasso; on a hill overlooking the surrounding fields, the Rustico promises to provide our guests with unforgettable holiday moments.

We are very proud and happy that last month we were finally able to launch our new website, www.piandelnasso.com, with more user-friendliness when booking, an extensive description and display with current photos of the furnishings of our holiday homes and a lot of information about the nature and what there is to do on and near Pian del Nasso.

This Christmas we were invited again, together with our neighbors Gino, Carlo and Olga, by our dear neighbors Franca & Gianpiero for a delicious Christmas lunch. This will then be fasted again for days. We wish everyone from Pian del Nasso a very nice and merry Christmas and a great new year! See you in 2023!

To further develop our agriturismo, we will go in March to admire our lavender, which we ordered last year. There are many roads that lead to Rome and that apparently also applies to our garden nursery. The beautiful route with magnificent views, indicated by our navigation, suddenly changes from a considerable 'enough' paved road in a kind of forest path full of craters and boulders that our car can barely drive over and, to enhance the survival factor, the road goes down fascinatingly steeply. Turning around on this narrow forest path is impossible. It makes me realize that if I had been on the Titanic at the time, I would probably have been the first to jump into a lifeboat, because I suddenly find myself, anti-socially enough, outside the car and noticeably continue on foot, while I watch Sander in the meantime. just let him plod along on his own. It is only thanks to him and his very good driving skills that he and the car finished after half an hour! reach the normal road without any wrinkles. And yes, such an adventure is also the charm of Italy!

At the nursery in Camerana we hear that our lavender plants have not started. This year it means no view of waving lavender fields. The journey is, però, not for nothing; we can purchase a variety of beautiful trees and shrubs. My grandfather's statement “tomorrow you will know what it is good for” becomes clear again when this summer is one of the driest and hottest summers in centuries and a third of our well-planted lavender does not survive (suppose we have thousands of lavenders). had planted…), while all but 1 of the newly planted trees survived. Like the older trees, they even exhibit an abundance of flowers and fruit. Fortunately, the lavender that survives the summer yields relatively high yields. After all the cutting and picking, we are left with two large wooden baskets with lavender. The baskets are made of mesh at the bottom, so that the picked lavender can dry thoroughly before I put them in bags. During the return journey from the lavender nursery, it suddenly turns out (once again on the advice of the navigation) that there is a very civilized route from the nursery, simply over comfortable asphalted roads and also with beautiful views.

Thanks to the help of good friend Leo, Sander managed to put all the new trees and shrubs in the ground in April. It is incredibly nice to see how attractive the new plantings are to birds and butterflies. In the garden around our house, due to the many extra hiding places, it has become a large happy gathering of wagtails, tits, robins and occasionally we even hear sparrows. According to our friend Hans van Oosterhout, the well-known butterfly watcher and bird watcher, the wide variety of butterflies and insects per lavender on Pian del Nasso is unique. Of course we hear the cheerful buzzing of the bees and see butterflies fluttering up and down. But which inhabitants that parallel world houses and feeds is unknown to us. Hans has created a description and photo collection especially for the nature lovers among us (you can see a few below), which can soon be found on our new website. A number of photos have been released on canvas and are now hanging in our holiday homes. And even more fun: the images can also be admired 'live' in the garden.

The renovation of our Rustico will start in June! With some delays here and there due to small 'details' such as a permit that turns out not to be completely complete and 'Ferragosto' the holiday month in Italy, which means that all work comes to a standstill, the renovation has been in full swing since September. The new roof will be put on next week and we hope to celebrate 'Pannenbier' in accordance with Dutch tradition as soon as the highest point is reached. At times it has something of our renovation of our house in the Kerkstraat in Baarn (friends and family probably remember it). Only a facade remained and Sander and his father chipped away thousands of bricks so that they, complete with cutting joints, became worthy of a house from 1860 again and that is also how it is now with the Rustico. It has been demolished down to the facade, and is now being restored to its former glory by chipping off the plaster and restoring it in 'stone'. We say: “to be continued” and “keep you posted”!

In the autumn the time of the famous 'Truffle' On! Around Pian del Nasso we encounter many foraging truffle hunters with dogs. They first look a bit startled when they see us walking with dogs (the competition here is literally fierce), but they quickly turn to some pity because ours have a great cuddliness factor, but very little detective instinct (read: put a piece of sausage in front of their nose and they won't notice anything. They also do very well in the car from NL to IT with a bag of dog food next to them. It doesn't go beyond using it as a pillow for their head). So there is little competition to fear from us.

Many culinary festivals take place in the region in honor of the truffle. There is the annual 'La Festa del Tartufo di Millesimo'. In the center of the beautiful town of Millesimo, also known for Ristorante Pantarei Cucina (we were there this summer with Sander's parents, who once again honored us with a very special visit), the streets are filled with stalls selling all kinds of local products. with the main theme of course being truffle, but also with all kinds of other products such as honey, cheese, salami, etc. . Of course you can taste everywhere. It is very nice and when Sander and I were still on holiday here in the Mulino we always came there! Recommended. We can now add another good restaurant to our list: Madonna della neve in Cessole. It is located in the mountains with a beautiful view over the vineyards. The kitchen is famous for its Piedmontese cuisine, its excellent wine list and its ravioli served in linen napkins; http://www.ristorantemadonnadellaneve.it