Story of My Life in Geneva: October 2015

A few months ago, Chris and I were discussing the idea of my mom visiting for a month, and we thought it was a great idea. So, we convinced her that she could make her way through the airport and customs on her own and booked a flight! We have been looking forward to her visit for many reasons; girls get quality time with grandma, I have a person to help with daily tasks, we get to enjoy new experiences together, and Chris and I get free babysitting! She arrived last Tuesday, and unfortunately we put her right to work. I became sick on Wednesday night and was not able to get out of bed until Friday, which meant she was taking care of the girls.

When we found out my mom was coming, Chris and I planned a weekend getaway to Italy and were so excited. I went to the doctor Friday morning and discovered I had strep, and had to make the decision of whether to go or not. I googled 'wine and penicillin' and could not find any bad side effects, so we decided to go!

Pretty as a picture-

Chris had traveled to the Piedmont region of Italy last spring with his brothers and absolutely fell in love and wanted to share this unique place with me, so we planned a trip to Neive, Italy. Neive is a very quaint village known for its wine producing of four well known wines; Dolcetto d'Alba, Barbaresco, Moscato, and Barbera d'Alba. The region is also known for white truffles, which are an edible fungi, similar to mushrooms, that grow underground near the roots of certain tree species, and are incredibly hard to find. They actually hunt them with dogs usually around midnight when the dogs have the best sense of smell. Since they are so hard to find, and seen in the culinary world as being 'food of the gods,' they are literally worth their weight in gold. Right now, about 100 grams (less than one cup) of white truffles would cost about $250-300. Chris and I are not huge truffle fans, but it is interesting to learn about them.

Friday we arrived in the village and I quickly discovered why Chris had fallen in love with this region. Everywhere you look, it looks like a painted picture- absolutely beautiful.

Saturday we woke up early and headed to Alba, which is another town in the Piedmont region. Alba has an amazing market on Saturdays that we wanted to experience. The cobblestone streets were packed with local merchants selling their goods, mainly clothes and food items.

Saturday afternoon, we hiked around the vineyards- taking in the fall colors. We also stumbled upon a winery, Cantina del Glicine. The cellar dates back to the 1500's and has remained intact for the last 500 years. It was an absolute amazing site to see. The owners were so kind and led us through the underground caves offering so much history. After the tour we were able to enjoy a relaxing, kid-free, wine tasting session. Saturday night, we were fortunate and there was a festival going on in the tiny village of Neive. We walked around the cobblestone streets enjoying authentic Italian food and drinking their famous wines.

The vines were so much taller than the ones in Switzerland-

Fall colors at their finest-

Wine cellar- 500 years old- so cool!

Beautiful grapes produce delicious wine!

Street festival in Neive- you wore a pouch to hold your wine glass!

Sunday we spent a couple hours walking around Barbaresco, another village, and the vineyards.

We had a wonderful weekend get-away! This past week my mom has been able to experience what our daily life is like. Unfortunately, the weather has not been the best, so we have not been able to take many adventures with her yet. Adalyn is off from school all next week, so we are planning many day trips and a weekend trip to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. We are looking forward to a great week!

** Blog written last week**

We had a wonderful time hosting Chris' aunt and uncle, Roger and Jeanie. They visited us for four days, and we were able to show them some of our favorite places during their visit. We visited Lake Geneva, Lavaux Wine Region, Chamonix, and Annecy.

The highlight of the trip was taking them to the Desalpe, also known as the cow parade, in St. Cergue. Every fall around Switzerland the desalpes happen when the cows move down to the low valley region for the winter months. Roger and Jeanie had read our blog about the cow parade last year and instantly knew they wanted to be part of the cultural event. It definitely did not disappoint. The weather was beautiful, around 700 cows were parading, the cow bells were ringing, and the folk music was playing! We really enjoyed being able to share this Swiss tradition with them.

Roger is a cow expert, so it was fun to have him give us some insight about the many cows we see in Switzerland. Chris had always told us every cow was, "a Brown Swiss." Unfortunately for Chris, Roger saw many different breeds of cows, yet very few Brown Swiss!!!