Our (and our relatives’) efforts at procuring lodging in Lagnasco having proved vain, and having discovered that there are neither busses nor reliable internet in Lagnasco, we have decided to move to Saluzzo. We’ve been staying there anyway, and falling by degrees in love with it. The town is built right up against the hills, on the edge of the fertile plain. The beautifully preserved but still very much alive old city winds up the hill, culminating in its own castle, currently under renovation. We found a beautiful little apartment right in the middle of it, cobblestone streets, painted frescoes, and spacious vaulted ceilings and all. The icing on the cake is that it’s less than a third of our rent in San Diego (at one of the many San Diego apartment communities that try to look Italian).
One of the nicest things (even though it’s a small one) in Saluzzo is that in a little Piazza not far from our new apartment, there’s a little 24-hour self-service place that sells raw milk. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the sign: “Latte Crudo.” You bring your own bottle, put it inside the stainless-steel refrigerator-dispenser, insert a one-euro coin, and out comes a stream of deliciously cold fresh raw milk (inspected and certified under the highest European standards). Next to it is a machine dispensing various kinds of soft artisan cheeses, made from the same high-quality milk. The best thing of all: people are buying it. Lots of people. It’s just not a weird thing here. I have lots of other happy Italian food stories. Most of them are simple, with just a few ingredients, because that’s what Italian food is like.
We took back our rental car last week and replaced it. Our family vehicle is now a tandem stroller. We tried it on the steep cobblestone hills of Old Saluzzo the other day, and it worked beautifully.