Acqui Terme has been a revelation to me. I had imagined a small Italian village that serviced the farming community.
I am now so ashamed of my extreme ignorance. I should have searched Diana's name with 'Acqui Terme'. She wrote a lovely piece over on Slow Travel Italy, with the title: So, Ok, But, Well, Why Acqui Terme?
I need to go back and photograph it all but imagine, I dipped my hand into this fountain ... La Bollente, a fountain built in 1879 by Giovanni Ceruti that is arguably Acqui Terme's most famous landmark. At all hours of the day and late into the night men, women and children can be seen visiting La Bollente (literally "the boiling source"), filling jugs and buckets with the curative waters that rise to the earth's surface here at 75 degrees celsius.
Today it is a thriving town surrounded by vineyards that produce some of the most remarkable wines I've ever tasted. But more on the wines another time, although this wine was indescribably delicious.
We were there for the market and I managed to replace that hat I lost in Genova too.
Diana bought a chicken from a man who grows the tastiest chickens (I imagine I might be getting boring with all this 'exquisite' and 'best ever' stuff, I know. It will pass. Forgive me.) And she selected some cheeses and some gloriously sweet juicy tomatoes.
Diana roasted the chicken until it was golden on the outside, some potatoes, and whipped up a tomato salad too. Micha opened another delicious Piedmont red wine and voila ... dinner was truly divine.
