The last two days have been local: yesterday we headed about 10 minutes down the road to Borghetto, for a cooking lesson at Bar Centro with Chiccio, and today we went for a walk near Ormea, just over the Piemonte border and then up to the tiny village of Quarzina for a rustic lunch at a refugio with some friends of Jackie’s.

The cooking lesson was fun and informative, and the results extremely tasty. Bar Centro is tiny, and serves a workers lunch during the day, as well as opening at night. We “cooked” (using the term loosely – we were in the tiny, well-organised restaurant kitchen so mostly we helped a little, took notes and asked lots of questions) onion fritters (simple and delicious), hand made tagliatelle with pesto, rabbit with red wine, and apple “cake” (apples baked in a batter which came out looking a bit like focaccia) again, simple and delicious. Stuffed full, we had a quiet afternoon before visiting Sophie, a local sculptor (check out Sophie Dickens on Instagram to see some of her work), and then wound up having drinks and dinner with some friends of Jackie’s who live down the street in a beautifully renovated apartment.

Today we did a walk along a river starting at Ponte di Nava and finishing at Ormea. It’s a river where folk come to catch trout and there were a couple of fishermen out, as well as some dog walkers. As it’s early summer the wildflowers were out and the views up to the mountains were lovely. From Ormea, we headed up (literally) to Quarzina, a tiny village with stunning views down two valleys, to a simple little rifugio restaurant for a rustic lunch, then back to Ormea for a stroll before driving back down the valley to Pieve. And it was yet another sunny, warm day.