Valsavarenche Aosta Valley, Italy

Last weekend Matt and I headed to Valsavarenche in Aosta Valley for hiking in Gran Paradiso park.  We stayed in this cute, cozy bed and breakfast called À l'Hostellerie Du Paradis.  I chose this one, because you walk out of the door of the b&b and you are literally next to one of the hiking trails plus Sasha was allowed in the hotel.  The park was absolutely beautiful, but my only complaint was dogs are not allowed in the park!! What a heartbreak for me, because in case you haven't noticed my dog is attached to our hips and goes everywhere with us.  She has literally been to the top of Europe, she goes into restaurants and stores, but she can't go into Gran Paradiso park?!  Ok, I am done whining here are the pictures we took and yes we had a wonderful time!  The views were some of the best we have seen and in our usual fashion we have a ridiculous amount of pictures.  Enjoy! :-)

hotel

dining room

fondue

two specialties of the region: dry soup and beef with polenta and it was excellent

Ibex!

 

 

Christmas Dinner at Hotel Carlotta in Belgirate, Italy

We moved into our Italian house a couple of weeks ago and our new landlord is a sweet 77 year old Italian lady filled with more energy then I have ever seen!  She invited us to an art event that she puts on every year at the Hotel Carlotta in Belgirate (on the lake north of Arona).  We were not quite sure what to expect, but this is how the evening played out.  We walked and she had her paintings on display (she creates beautiful art!) and we were taken into a room that had 15 tables and each had the materials to create a nativity scene.  While we worked and built our scenes there were bag pipe players, our landlord sung many songs, the wise men came for a visit!

We had a full buffet of appetizers and drinks and then we were taken into a second room for an 8 course meal that included pumpkin ravioli, risotto, beef, cake, gelatto, etc.! I forgot to take pictures of the food!

Wine tasting and black truffle gnocchi

Our friends Elizabeth and Tyler had a great idea to have a blind wine tasting with some of their favorite wines.  I made black truffle gnocchi with sun dried tomatoes, red pepper, and pesto and Steve, Ashley and Maura brought the bread, cheese and chocolate! Yum!

Lago di Antrona

Remember about a month ago we tried going to Lago di Antrona, but the retaining wall came down on the road and we couldn't drive further so we went hiking elsewhere?  I vowed to return and we did on November 2! 

On the way back down the temperature dropped quickly and the fog rolled in so we took the road back which stilled offered some wonderful views:

No wonder we couldn't see up there!