Despite falling in love with Lyon, we left the city this morning. We would love to come back. For now, we are enjoying Alba, Italy.

Alba is about a four-and-a-half hour drive from Lyon and we stopped a few times along the way. We arrived in the city close to 4pm and initially had some trouble figuring our where our Airbnb actually was. The google directions put us in a busy piazza area. We finally figured it out and were delighted to check in to our Alba apartment.

Our host was kind and spent some time getting us situated. He told us that the white truffle festival is going on this weekend, so we are looking forward to crowds of people and some delicious food. He also let us know about the farmers markets going on three times a week and other cities in the area we may want to visit.

We walked around this evening to check out what’s around and bought some local salami from a butcher nearby, who also got us to try some hot peppers in olive oil. We ended the evening with some gelato, which cannot become a habit despite the shop being next door to where we are staying.

photos: the Italian Alps looking beautiful on a fall day

below: trying some hot red peppers

Alba this evening, the banner is for the Truffle Festival on Sunday