To win three days in Italy ...

Yes, dear readers, this is logrolling, but "we're all sensitive people" as Marvin Gaye puts it, and no harm is done.

(Did I mention that this week, the store temporarily lost the satellite feed that normally pipes in the Muzak? Silence in a big grocery store is, after a while, eerie, so one day someone decided to tune in a local soft jazz radio station. Hearing "Let's get it on" at 9:30 in the morning in aisle 15 was comical to say the least, and even more so when the chirpy prerecorded announcements about sales in the meat department, etc., came through and drowned out Marvin. Later on the same chirpy, prerecorded ads drowned out some breathy sex kitten warbling about "the Sweetest Taboo." Then someone shut the radio off.)

Megan from TorreBarolo contacted me to suggest my readers might like to know about the property she owns in Italy's Langhe valley, in Piedmont, in the town of Barolo. Yes, that Barolo, where the grand, nebbiolo-based wine is made (though only in those years when the grapes are fine enough to deserve the name). TorreBarolo is a seventeenth-century five story tower, the top three floors of which Megan rents out to vacationers. At the moment, she is holding a giveaway: anyone who becomes a fan of her Facebook page before January 31st -- that's next Sunday -- is automatically entered for a chance to win a 3 night stay between February 5th and March 31st of this year. You'll find more details at her blog, here.

The Langhe is a little-visited area of Italy, she writes, blessed with gorgeous scenery, well preserved medieval hilltop towns, and a unique regional cooking style. Alba, famed for its truffles, is fifteen minutes away, and Asti, famed for its sweet moscato wine, is -- by the look of the map on her website -- perhaps another fifteen minutes beyond that. Hiking trails, wineries, weekend markets, and a new golf resort and spa ten minutes from Barolo will all keep any traveler as busy as he'd like.

Seriously: you might want to take up Italian golf.

For more on the Langhe, its food, wines, festivals, and sights, do visit Megan's website, and go to Facebook to take a chance on winning that three day stay in the tower.

You've got a week.