Day 114 - 21/08/19 - Mombarcaro, Italy

This morning, we headed into Canelli, to go on the Asti tour. We followed the sat nav, and parked up, but we couldn’t find the place we were looking for. Luckily, there was a small computer shop open, and the owner managed to direct us. We weren’t that far off, so left the Motorhome where it was and walked to it. We would never have got the Motorhome anywhere near it, with the narrow roads, so it was a good job the sat nav didn’t direct us all the way there !

We had 45 mins to spare before the English tour, so went to grab something to eat (and drink), while we waited. Again, we were lucky, this time with the timing of the English tour as it wasn’t advertised and we had just turned up in spec.

The tour was great, very informative. At the end we were offered 3 tastings plus an alcohol free one. We particularly liked 2 of them, and ended up buying a box of 6 of each - not sure where we are going to put them 🙈.

We carried our boxes of Asti back to the Motorhome and went in search of a caravan shop in Alba, where we were hoping to buy a replacement water cap. If we have the exact co-ordinates then we have managed to find all places successfully, otherwise we have used the postcode and this has been fine too. However, in Italy, the postcode seems to take you to a region and not a specific place, which we found out when looking for the caravan shop. We ended up going about 12k passed where we needed to be, in the middle of a roundabout 🙄. At least now we know it to trust the Italian postcodes.

We headed back to where we should have been going, and really didn’t expect to find it. We went through little villages, and then up steep winding roads, and we came across it hidden behind the trees. We weren’t expecting to be able to get a replacement cap, but we’re so pleased when we showed the assistant a photo and he went and got one for us 😃

We then carried on to Mombarcaro, where we were planning on parking up for the night. The roads we drove along have us the most amazing views all around, from 850m ! The vineyards are on such slopes not this area, they must take so much effort to maintain.

We arrived at Mombarcaro, and parked up on the stopover with the most stunning views. The ‘warden’ greeted us - a chap who has been there for months, and tends to keep an eye on things apparently. There was just one other Motorhome. It was 5€ to stay for the night, which included electric and water, and we had to walk up some steps and to the bar to pay. Looking at the steps, it was hard to believe there was anything up there, never mind a bar. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find a lovely little village, where the locals meet and have coffee - just beautiful.

Stopover Information