Today has been the first full day in Piedmont and I’m beginning to feel a lot less like a zombie than yesterday. That’s my typical reaction to the timezone change though when I come to the EU. My body seems to go through a kind of withdrawal for at least a day and I can barely function. Much better today though.

Given that this area is the birthplace of the “Slow Food” movement and not to mention, that I’m on vacation, it’s perhaps appropriate and maybe poetic that my watch stopped today too. Maybe I should take the hint and slow down a little too.

Today there was nothing that really moved too fast. I got here all the way from Austin in the time it took my luggage to finally make the transfer from Turin. Patience… By the time it arrived though I was returning from a slow lunch.

Given I was waiting for the luggage to show, I didn’t venture too far to find lunch. I found Osteria del Vecchio Gallo a few blocks into the central part of Alba. They had a bunch of nice tables set up outdoors, it was beautiful weather and they seemed to have a pretty good crowd, so I found a table.

While I wish the photo was better, I obviously got the ravioli. To be specific, the “ravioli del plin burro e salvia”. Now let’s be honest. I didn’t really know what that was going to be. Ok, I at least knew the ravioli part. The “del plin” part turns out to mean a small filled ravioli. And the “burro e salvia” just means it’s covered with butter and sage. Something tells me I should be installing google translate onto my phone.

Lunch was a leisurely event and by the time I got back to my stay, my luggage was there. Cool. Off to a regional enotecha …