Indian Summer, Italian Winter

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Goodbye Old South

Mourir c'est partir un peu, or something. Anyway, after all the years of awful weather, Amsterdam put on a very pleasant few weeks of bright sunshine to celebrate our impending departure. Here is a panorama taken at the junction of Sophialaan, where we used to live, and Waldeck-Pyrmontlaan.

Piedmontese Autumn

Autumn colours welcomed us to Piedmont, at least at first.

Here, looking out from in front of the church at Isola d'Asti, towards the Monviso, which is easier to see in this zoomed shot:


The bouts of sunny weather continued into December, in between snowstorms. Here we are at Alice Bel Colle, looking south-west towards Monviso (to the left of the picture), with Castel Rocchero to the right.

and here, from the terrace in front of the church at Montebello, looking roughly in the same direction

Snow

Allegedly, it doesn't always start snowing in November (well, it did wait until the 28th). But when it snows, there is a lot


Our neighbour, Elio, lost a wonderful old pergola, and the wisteria it was supporting. We were grateful that his fir trees did not fall on our house - this shot is taken from the first floor windows at the back of the house..

The countryside looks quite different with all this snow, too. Here is the view down to Fontanile, from the Quaranti-Alice Bel Colle road

And here is what to do in the Piedmont when it snows ...

Christmas

Not our first Christmas in Bruno, of course, because we had been here two years earlier; but our first since we took up residence.

And the first time my cousin Helen had been to the house.

Same for Isobel.

She seems to like Piedmontese food.

But she had brought her home comforts just in case