Castell’Alfero Day 3

Off today (without time for Anne’s coffee hit - she is going to go through withdrawal 😛) to Sala to see if we can get my dad’s records. The woman at the office was really helpful and we soon had a copy of the birth registration details. She then asked us if we wanted to see something interesting - of course!!!

We followed her downstairs to a large underground round shaped room (made of old brick) with a chute to the outside at the top. Have a guess what this was used for? Before the days of electricity and freezers/fridges, people would harvest ice from high up in the mountains and cart it back to be stored for sale to the local town’s people. Workers would go down into the room and chop of hunks of ice to be hand winched to the top. As the ice was sold it was replenished.

We headed off to the town of Casala Monferrato to do some laundry - there’s no end to the excitement. I even managed to help some locals out by showing them how to use the machines (even though we hadn’t read the instructions and there was twice the amount of detergent you are supposed to use in our machines and we now smell like a walking soap factory!!!).

I also let them know they weren’t allowed to wash their horses, dogs or cats in the machines. They looked at me as if I was some sort of idiot (so did Anne when I mentioned to her what I’d said to them). I said “well have a look at the instructions on the machine, it’s even illustrated to make sure there is no misunderstanding”. See the photo below if you don’t believe me😛).

Headed off to visit the city of Alessandria before going home. We had a coffee here, and a cannoli that tasted the same as a type of zabaglione we used to make as kids after school.

Tomorrow we’re visiting some of my cousins - looking forward to seeing them (Anne and I actually visited them about 13 yeas ago when we were here).Read more