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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

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Berbenno di Valtellina, Italia (Home)

 

Sleep, elusive to some, but when you are “home” it comes so easily and peacefully. When the temperature is right, the humidity just so and the air crisp and clean, getting out of bed is difficult. Last night, after walking back to Le Corti dei Sassi in the pouring rain, we climbed into bed and drifted off. Morning came, but not at 04:30, or even 05:30, it would be 9 hours and 40 minutes after my head hit the pillow.

 

We went down to the breakfast room shortly after 08:00. We had cappuccino, brioche and the Valtellinesi yogurt with frutti di bosco. There is no more creamy better tasting then the natural yogurt produced in the valtellina. Here is the heart of the Italian Alps you get a highly protein-rich milk that imparts a creamy texture to the yogurt produced here. There is a short and certified supply chain allows its to go into production within hours of milking. The natural acidification process produces its gentle and creamy character. Even in its unflavored form it is very good, add frutti di bosco, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, even raspberries the failover it simply beyond description. Mary like to add various nuts and seeds to her’s. It doesn’t matter is is a energizing breakfast.

 

 

After breakfast we drove into Sondrio to meet Mariagiulia and Damilia. The plan was to go for a walk in the vineyards to show Damilia the terracing and get sweeping views of the Valtellina. There have been enough parking tickets paid for, and trying to analyze where one can and can’t park and for how long is still a good Italian mystery, so we parked in the public parking lot off of Via Tonale opposite the Autostazione. It is a paid parking lot and it took a minute to figure out how to pay, but we managed to get a four hour pass for two Euro.

 

We walked around to the front of the train station and met Damilia and Mariagiulia. We discussed, again, where we were going. Then we walked to the local school where Mariagiulia parked her car. She just shrugged and said “oh you can park here for a little while, but not too long.” What does that mean?

 

She drove up the valley towards Valmalenco, but only as far as the Cimitero in Ponchiera. Here we got out and started to walk on the Valtellina Wine Trail. Soon we came to the Passerella sulla Cassandre. This is a pedestrian bridge across the gorge over the Torrente Mallero. Ok, it is a suspension bridge over the fast flowing stream or little river Mallero. At the point the bridge spans the valley it is approximate 500 feet across. The bridge itself is a comfortable 10 feet wide. From here you can look down towards Sondrio, or look directly down into the Torrente Mallero about 300 feet below you. Totally amazing to see. Would be better to walk the trail further, but it is going to rain and we want to move on to Castello Grumello.




 

Mariagiulia drove along the walking trail, actually the road, which traversed the hills above Sondrio. Seeing the vineyards and terraces up close is amazing. To think that these hills used to be covered with these terraces is totally mind blowing. You can see where the forest has taken over some one them which have been abandoned because they are just too hard to work. 100 years go the hearty people of the Valtellina worked them as that was the choice.

 

We drove to Castello Grumello. The 13th-century fortress set high on a cliff-top above Sondrio is a rare example of a “twin” castle – two mirror-image buildings united by a section of wall. This would have been a very difficult place to attack. The steep hills to get up here would have made the attackers easy targets. However it has changed hands many times.





First written record of Castello di Grumello is from 1222. However, it is likely it had been existing for some time for that. The Castle was sold by the community to Cardinal Guglielmo Longo between 1300 and 1310. Then in 1380 the castle and its town were sacked and burned by the Ghibellines of Iseo. Just 13 years later the Guelphs and Ghibellines of Iseo were at it again, and again the Guelphs lost. In 1407 Pandolfo Malatesta, with the approval of the Duke of Milan, conquers Grumello.

 

 

IN 1428 The Castle is passed to the Venetian Republic and, twenty years later, to Bartolomeo Colleoni, a condottiero, an important person or leader, who lived there especially during the summer, taking care of the vineyards and using the cellar mainly as a storeroom. Between 1700 and 1800 the Castle followed the fortunes of the City of Bergamo. It passed back and forth from Napoleonic to Austrian domination.

 

 

Prince Gonzaga del Carretto, a distance cousin of the House of Gonzaga which once ruled in Lombardia, the owner of the estate in 1850, imported from France some vine shoots of a new variety that the farmers called Burdunì, which we now know as Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

 

Between 1870 and 1911 The Agrarian School is founded in Grumello del Monte, focusing on producing quality wine mainly around the castle which was at the point it is ruins. In 1953 the estate around the castle passed to the Kettlitz Reschigna family, the the focus became on wine production. Some archaeological digs have been done at the castle in an attempt to find more history, but more needs to the done.

 

Today the Castle di Grumello is under the protection of FAI. The Fondo Ambiente Italiano is the National Trust of Italy. The organization was established in 1975 as the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, based on the model of the National Trust of England, Wales, & Northern Ireland. It is a private non-profit organization.


Just below the castle is Ristoro Castel Grumello. It is a small restaurant with several rooms in which you can almost feel what life might have been like in the castle. We stopped here for lunch. Thank goodness we had Damilia with us. There is no written menu. The waiter just recites the menu for you. The menu depends on what is fresh and available today.

 

The food is totally amazing. We each ordered an appetizer, we should have stopped there because that was more than enough food. So, there was prosciutto and fresh figs for me, Mary had zucchini flowers filled with mozzarella cheese and anchovies, Damilia had a sliced fish plate with tuna, swordfish and salmon, and Mariagiulia had a salad plate with tuna.




 

There was enough food but we went on. Damilia was the smart one she ordered a plate of vegetables! Mariagiulia order the gnocchi with mushrooms in a mushroom sauce. Mary and I ordered the risotto with saffron and cheese. The risotto had to be made for a minimum of two people, but there was enough to feed four or five very hungry people. Then Mariagiulia excused herself to go to the little girls room, what we found out later was that she was sneaking out to pay the bill. That is a trick I have pulled several times.

 




After lunch Mariagiulia drove us back to the parking lot in Sondrio where we got in the car and drove back to the B&B. So much food required a pisolino (nap). Yes, we took a nap – a two plus hour nap. Even after getting up we were still full. We spent the afternoon reading and writing. No dinner!

 

All of my energy is going into digesting lunch. Tomorrow is another day. Only very light drizzle today, supposed to be rain tomorrow. Serra saw the doctors today and they will have the baby on Friday. We are sticking with our plan and going to Torino on Tuesday.

 

Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria

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