Sunday 28th April 2024

Sunday 28^th April

SHE SAID:

At this stage I’m feeling that Italy only does “grey”. We had a nice day in Assisi & in Florence, but other than that the rest of the tour has been cold, grey & drizzly rain! Not very conducive to great spirits!

We headed for Lake Maggiore today with the main stop of the day at the Rovero Winery & Grappa Estate. There was wine & Grappa tasting on offer, along with an interesting talk about the production of both.

Lunch was in Casale Montferrato at Lori’s suggestion, and that was nice too. 

The Grand Majestic Hotel sits on the edge of Lake Maggiore, our accommodation for the next 2 nights. Our dingy room faces the road... nothing grand about the hotel from our viewpoint, though the public areas do look very "flash"! 

They didn’t even want to give us a pot of hot water & cups for tea without a fee (I was going to use our teabags!). We got a glass of hot water in the end, which Geoff bravely carried up to the room with his hankie around it trying not to scald himself!

Santa Vittoria d'Alba Castle on the hill

Castle Costigliole d'Asti

Rovero Winery & Distillery

Views along Lake Maggiore

Grand Hotel Majestic

HE SAID:

We were rugged up again today. It is still cold. It has been a couple of decades since I last tried grappa, so I gave it a go. Nope, still awful. So, I tried Vermouth. Nope. Oh well.

Our hotel looked really nice from the outside, and in the common areas, but our room was disappointing. The fiasco with our attempt at getting tea was also disappointing. A 5 euro fee (a bit over $8) for some hot water was rather rich, especially as we had been told that we just needed to ask and it would be provided. Some places in Italy have been so relaxed, but the places that are stingy make Italy memorable for the wrong reasons. It really feels like most places want to fleece you, with their per person charge just for being a customer at a cafe, high prices, and lack of basic things like a kettle in your room.