Saturday

Thursday night we were treated to dinner at a pizzeria in a nearby town. Everyone dressed up and no one told us where we were going. Paula gave Zabeth a black dress and told her to wear it, it was nothing fancy but it was a treat for us all to go out together. Yesterday morning we got up around 7 and packed one of our bags full of water, bread, honey and salami. Then we met up with a family friend of 78 years, vittorio, an avid hiker. He helped Zabeth and I get started on a walking tour of five towns and towers in the area, all lookout towers in the province of Asti. The first was three hours away, San gr.... Something or other. Sconce monastero Bormida is the hub of the Bormida river valley, all the spots were uphill. The first part of the walk was the toughest, and then it was about two hours to the next, olmo gentile, the smallest town in the province. There we had lunch at an old church and caught a quick wink. It was only 40 minutes to the next tower and the highest town in the province, roccaverano. You can get a key at the bar and go to the top of the tower, but we were pretty tired of going up. Then it began downhill to Vengore, a tower without a town close by, but surrounded by a moat and a picnic area. Then there was a lot of downhill on our way back to monastero, so much so that we quit taking the trail, which meandered between road and woods, and just stuck to the road. In all we were out for ten hours for a thirty kilometer walk. We were both tired and hot when we arrived home, shortly before the clouds moved in. Vittorio left us before the first tower or torre (cinque torri is the hike) but he came by at eit to check on our safe return. Our prize for completion was homemade tiramisu from Paula. Today they have understood our soreness and let us to our own cutting dead branches out of the vineyard, at our own pace of course.