Thursday 19th November 2009 – Cherasco, Italy

The aire is an intriguing set up as it appears to be owned by the 'Associazione Camperisti La Spezia'
(a motorhome-owners group) but is also a base for 'Pubblica Assistenza Pitelli' who run an ambulance and medic service. It is staff from the latter that provide the receptionist but they obviously also have other duties. The aire is free but you are asked to make a donation to the ambulance service and this we duly did.
On the way out of La Spezia we took the opportunity to stock up with Italian goods before we left the country. However we had scheduled one further stop before we went into France. By choice, this would have been Ai Cuivin but we knew that the restaurant was only open at weekends so we decided to go further north.
We chose Cherasco as it was well placed for the next day's journey into France. It was a good choice as Cherasco is a very pleasant town set on a low hill with a host of interesting architecture. We drove to the approximate position of the aire but failed to find it so we parked up in a car park and started to walk through the 18th century 'Porta Narzole' and immediately came across a sign pointing to the aire just outside the gate. It turned out that the aire car park was going to be used for a festival the following evening and the fun fair was already in position so we decided to stay in the car park that we had already parked in.
We did a quick tour of the town and found it packed with obvious signs of wealth with large churches and impressive palazzos built mainly between the 14th and 18th centuries. I am currently building a wood-fired pizza and bread oven in my garden and would like to buy a Tuscan grill to put in it. This is a simple, low metal grill that sits on the oven floor and can be used as a barbecue with the hot embers from the fire placed under the grill. It became a joke that I would always look for a Tuscan grill whenever we saw a hardware shop in Italy. On the way back to the car we passed a couple of hardware shops but there were no Tuscan grills in sight. However I also need some flue pipe for the chimney and I had joked with Jane that I could get some cheap in Italy given the number of wood-fired oven and stoves that they have. Much to my amazement, the second harware shop had a sale of old stock outside the shop and there were two 1m lengths of flue on sale at €2 (£1.80) each. I couldn't resist the temptation and was soon strolling back to Henrietta with two flue pipes. I don't know whether they are the correct diameter but at €4, compared with about £80 at home, it was worth the risk!
Photos: Cherasco was full of wonderful, huge doorways such as this one; The Town Hall and arcaded buildings of Cherasco.