Wednesday, June 25: Santa Vittoria d'Alba (30k loop through Barolo)
A fabulous day. We ended the ride early today because of the heat. After descending from Santa Vittoria, we climbed gradually for an hour to La Morra, which had a very pretty park, a medieval tower and two beautiful churches. Next we rode past one vineyard-covered hillside after another until we descended into Barolo, where we spent about an hour at Castello di Barolo. The castle houses a regional wine store/museum. Then we continued on to Monforte d'Alba and collapsed from the heat over a great lunch with Noreen, Melvin, Margie, and Lani; Clark, Frank, Jessica and Angie were at the next table. Carolyn ate tortellini with sage and butter, and Jeff created Il Pirate: fresh lemonade with Virginia peanuts!
After lunch we coasted (mostly) downhill to the base of the climb back to La Morra, then shuttled back to the hotel. We spent about 2 hours relaxing by/in the pool, then went to a wine tour/tasting at Fratelli Rabino. We tasted the Roero Arneis, and the Nebbiolo d'Alba: http://www.winecompany.net/producers/Rabino/it-rabino.htm

Back at the hotel, we had another very nice dinner on the terrace. (The dive-bombing bird races reoccurred, to make sure we were entertained.) And Jeff, Noreen and Carolyn climbed the tower before having dessert, just as it was getting dark.