Snowshoeing In The Vineyards

As you know, despite living at the foot of the Alps, I am not a mountain girl. In 8 years, I’ve gone skiing and snowshoeing just once. But, when my friend Roxy asked me if we wanted to go hiking in the snow… IN THE VINEYARDS, I was all about that! Can’t do that in Napa during the winter! So 2 sunny girls from Cali and Texas set off on our winter adventure from Barolo all the way to Monforte.

Such amateurs, I didn’t even have the right clothes and had no other choice but to rent the gear from a local shop. Off to a slow start, it took us about 20 minutes just to go 20 meters because the straps on my snowshoes were too big and my feet kept slipping out! So after switching some around I got to wear these pretty rad looking neon ones for the day. Somehow we made it up the steep uphill start!

This was totally my kind of snow day. We stopped to take some pictures of the dormant vines neatly lined up against the white palate. It was interesting to see that half the vineyards were not pruned yet but was even more exhilarating to see 3 groups of wild boars scurry up the hillside! Langhe even has its own winter wildlife! Lino, leading the way had to be the brave one, Roxy started dreaming of a glass of red wine amongst the vineyards, and Claudio was reminded of the local delicacy of hot polenta with wild boar sauce! We were then on a mission.

My butt and calves definitely started feeling the last uphill stretch of the trail, even more reason to deserve a treat. So when we finally saw the paved road, took off our “ciaspole” and loaded our equipment in the car, we couldn’t have been happier to sit in the Barolo Bar, drink some local Nebbiolo and eat some salumi and cheese near the wood-burning oven.

Who needs the mountains when we have got all this practically in our backyard!? It was a fantastic day.