Ch_ch_ch_changes here at Bella Baita

We've been busy bees here at Bella Baita!

 If you have been wondering what we have been up to (and I am sure you have been holding your breath), we've been working on multiple projects all at the same time. Sound familiar? Yes, that is what we are usually up to and I am quite sure it is probably the same around your house too.
The big news however is that after all our years of teaching our cooking classes  and feeding our guests from the "not all that long ago", remodeled "disco" room, come "Olympia" room, we have finally moved down to the ground level of our building. Now we have our guest rooms, dining room and spacious outdoor patio all on the same level. Confused? Well, I think I would be too if I had never visited our Italian mountain retreat. So perhaps a little history is in order.

La Baita

Fabrizio's parents built and ran "La Baita", restaurant and their home, the original building shown here in the front, for many years before retiring to hunt wild game and mushrooms. Fabrizio was off to the UK to perfect his English, and so they rented the restaurant out to other people. As the years past Fabrizio and I met and decided to return and make a B&B with the rooms that were just idling along from the addition that his family had added over the years when they were busy with the restaurant and never really had time to develop. The restaurant continued on for several years and several renters till times changed and the restaurant was no more. We had been running the B&B from the top of the dining room addition that had once been a "disco" during the hey days of the 70's and early 80's. Fabrizio remodeled it to suit us for our dining area and cooking classes, where we have been working from these last 5 years as our business has grown. So with the freeing up of the entire building,  yet another renovation was needed to be able to use the space for our new and improved Bella Baita B&B, Italian Alps Retreat, cooking classes, mini culinary tours, and all the other things that have come along. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the family garden, over by where Fabrizio's granfather Guistetto grew up,  that his parents have tended all these years, then fell into our hands to continue on with as his parents have started a new garden in the valley in the garden of the home where Fabrizio's mother grew up. That garden location produces tomatoes that just aren't possible up here in our fickled mountain weather.

So Fabrizio has been insulating, changing out the doors and windows, painting, and fixing all the many things that have not been working, as well as finding functional equipment and such to use in the space, all on a shoestring budget and his hard labor. We have had some help from various friends and cousins to rewire, plaster walls and on and on, that you can never tell was part of the long process once it's done, but it all takes time and money and there usually is never any extra heaps of either. Oh yes and did I mention the grand over haul of the garden to replace the fence with a rock retaining wall and heavy duty fence to keep those pesky wild boar and fleet footed roe deer out. The deer completely wiped out the garden last autumn. So Mr Fab (ulous) has been on a mission to fix, repair, remodel and redo the lot. 

Ta da!!!!!

Our wood fired oven and granite work surface made the move intact

Our new/old spacious, downstairs digs

We're back to where Fabrizio started out and happy to be settling in to our culinary space.

Fabrizio making us lunch

We still have much to figure out as far as shelving and curtains and such, but it's starting to feel like home.  Putting things on the walls, when your walls are concrete takes some thinking and are not to be added willy nilly, so those may just stay a blank canvas a little while longer.  

Our "Market to Table" and "Cooking Together" cookery classes have resumed and flourishing and always a great source of fun for all of us and naturally the test is in the eating of course!

Australia, USA and Italy unite around the table 

Our outdoor options have increased and become down right comfortable.

The great outdoors is accessible just outside your bedroom door, more or less on one level, except for the front steps that help to keep all those home cooked meals in check. Naturally there are still several options for hiking up or down to suit most everyones desire to get out of the indoors and into the mountains.  As Fabrizio, Silvano and C.A.I. continue to clean trails and map them out via GPS, we're increasing those options as well. So if you haven't been to visit us and if you already have, it's time to come back and have a good look round to see all the changes that have been happening here. We're looking forward to showing you around. 

Family garden

We'll be waiting for you...or maybe, we'll be working in the garden. Ciao For now!