Without snow, which is not guaranteed every year, our landscape here in the Langhe never goes completely gray. This cover crop in vineyard Gallina is trying hard to stay green.

A HUGE bonus of the lack of snow is the extra long truffle season which lasts until the first hard snow. This truffle was found by our friend Lorenzino on Christmas morning. A lot more truffles are being found lately, the price has dropped a lot. This truffle is currently worth about 300€, a month or two ago this would have cost two to three times more.

The Christmas season would not be complete without playing Tombola (bingo). Leslie won twice so two bags of raw sausage for us. This is the tradition in Treiso every Christmas Eve before midnight mass. Lots of Dolcetto, peanuts and clementines to keep us going.

With the holiday almost over we can start to catch up on web site work, here Robert in his studio is taking photos of bottles for a client's web site.

With Neive in the background, vineyard bricco San Giuliano is waiting for snow. Many producers are taking advantage of the lack of snow and getting an early start on the winter pruning "potatura", see photo below.

Setting up for outdoor concerts in the very big Piazza San Carlo.

Setting up the ice rink in Piazza Carlo Alberto.

We think these lights are a nod to the olympic runners. Every street has a different theme for lights, below is christmas trees.

Shoppers on Via Lagrange, Torino has been packed with shoppers and very festive.

Lots of street entertainers in Piazza Castello and a big advent calendar.

What a cute couple.

As the temp drops, the mountains are out most of the time during the winter. This was taken from the top of the Mole Antinella.

As the last of the fall colors fade away, we are getting ready for winter.
Step one, fill up the garage with wood for the our wood stove "stuffa".

Step two, install new stuffa that we can also cook on. Great for braising, soups and stocks.

Step three, show off new stuffa.

Puppy Cotta' is very happy with the new stuffa. She spends most of the winter in front of it.