office is open only until one or so. The movie theater is open only on Saturday night. Yet, in spite of the isolation from big city life, there is a place to buy a cell phone and plenty of people chirping "Pronto?" in the village with a portable phone attached to their ears.

Everything is closed ("chiuso") on Monday. Not a video store, not a place to buy a bottle of wine, niente. A few of us were hankering for a place to go one Monday night and we walked the whispering streets in earnest, in search of a cup of coffee. We were thrilled to discover one place open for business, a little coffee bar with a back room, where old men grunted and played cards. I was the only woman in the joint. We ordered espresso and grappa, and the owner came back with doubles. Imagine being in a saloon on a slow day. (Although I wasn't up to snuff with my Mae West impersonation, so I kept quiet.)

The population is just over 5,000, so it's pretty easy to get to know who's who and what they do. And you can't exactly blend in as a neighbor when you're traipsing through town dressed in chef whites, speaking very clumsy Italian and fumbling over your lire.

Please continue Costigliole d'Asti