Pictures of Asti and Pizza

Our guidebook says that Asti was once called the City of 100 Towers because at some point in its history, towers were all the rage. If you had money, you had to have a tower. So the city's elite set about building towers, and there are still many that remain today. Some, like this one, look like they're about to fall over. Some were shortened so they didn't stick out. Why would you go through all the trouble of shortening a tower?

Another tower in the square near where we ate lunch. Mostly we spent the day wandering around, looking at towers and peeking inside of churches.

Dinner was pizza at Nona Maria's. Here's a picture of the great lady herself, elbow deep in the bucket of pizza dough. She claims to have used 5 kilos of flour in the making of this!

She has obviously been making pizza for years. She was quite skillful at shaping the dough.

Here is Maria's husband, Angelo, tending the wood fired oven. They had an interesting technique, wherein they let the wood turn into coals and then placed the pizzas on top of them.

Here's a shot of the first half of the pizzas.

This is an Italian table--there's always room for everyone, no matter the size of the crowd!

They have animals. Cows, turkeys, chickens and one mean pony who bites.

Oh, how we suffer! The work here is very hard and we are looking forward to the day when we can leave this wretched place!