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Usually we are the ones who tell the locals about interesting places to see in our area. But when one of the villagers spoke enthusiastically about the panoramic art park Quirin Mayer, located in the wine hills between Monastero Bormida and Bubbio, we had to confess that we had never heard of it. Of course […]

You will not easily find the Bormida vally, on the border of Piemonte and Liguria, in a tourist travel guide. Historically speaking this has always been a poor area as farming was difficult because of the steep hills and low quality soil. Italians really look down their nose when you say the name Bormida. No

This morning Nicolas forced me to have breakfast with him in the village. Normally he goes to the bar / shop and we enjoy a quiet start of the day at home. Sometimes, when he’s up early, he goes by foot or ebike and enjoys a brioche and coffee in the bar,  and then comes

After 12 years in Piemonte, you would think that we already know most of the wineries in the region. Nothing could be further from the truth, because there are so many of them that I think you can visit a different one every week and still not have seen them all at the end of

We sometimes get the question why there are so many weeds in our lavender fields. Everyone has seen the pictures of the Provencal lavender fields and in those you never see a trace of other plants, only row after row of big lavender plants. I have no idea how they manage to keep their fields

Even many people who have lived here their whole life have never heard of this place a few km inland from the Ligurian riviera : the bouldering area near Varazze (Ligurian Riviera). However, it is world famous among a very specific group, the boulderers. Bouldering is a kind of rock climbing, where you conquer a

One of the things we, and other foreigners in this area, sometimes talk about is the fact that people here don’t seem to live for work, but work to live. We view this as positive and try to live our lives like this too, but a lot of people don’t understand why locals don’t jump

When you drive inland through the Bormida valley from Savona in Liguria to the charming spa town Acqui Terme in Piemonte chances are you will not have stopped anywhere and certainly not in Spigno Monferrato, a small village not mentioned in any touristic guide. And why should they? It’s just one of the many small

Never thought I would be so happy with the sound of builders on my hill. 10 days before the lockdown they started working on our new pool. Just in time, so it would be finished on May 1. We heard all kinds of rumors about the virus, but didn’t want to believe this would affect

The first time I visited Genova, 20 years ago, I couldn’t leave the city soon enough. We came in through wat felt like a maze of tunnels full of crazy Italian drivers and no parking spaces. Once we stepped out of the car the heat seemed to fall on us, as were the overwhelming sounds