April 15, 2017. Hiking at the gorge. Then, wine!

LOCATION:  Housesitting at a villa outside of Casoli, Italy in the Abruzzo region

WEATHER:  Beautiful.  Highs in 70s

Today, we returned to the mountain village of Pennapiedamonte, this time for a hike.  The village is nestled against the mountain, and the trail is upward from there.  Gino, our dog, enjoyed the hike.  The gorge is stunning.

 

I kept Gino on a short leash, due to the steep drop-offs.  

These are the same mountains, just closer, that we see from our villa.  With the sunny warm weather we have been enjoying, the snow is receding quite quickly.  

In the afternoon, we went to our neighbor's house/winery to see if we could buy some wine.  This is the same place where we have gone twice before and have spoken with the lovely older lady (who doesn't speak any English).  Each time, she has told me that the owners weren't there.  At the second visit she told me to return on Saturday evening, when they would be back for the Easter holiday.  So, off we went, and YES, the owner was there.  The winery is about 1/2 mile from our villa.  The grapes they grow for all of their wines are in their backyard.  They also produce and sell boutique olive oil.  This is my "friend"....

I think this is her home, next to the winery....

The owner greeted us and invited us back to the tasting room.  It is still under construction, but beautiful.  His wife, who speaks English, was not there, but we did ok with my heavy Spanish accented Italian.

Overlooking their grapevines....

We tasted two of his wines, a trebbiano that is a common grape here, and a merlot.  

The barstools are made to look like corks....so cute!

We learned that 80% of their wines are exported.  At $7/bottle, these are considered expensive, special occasion wines, here.     DINNER:  Sausage, pasta and broccolini from a recipe I found online.  Really good.