The land of the Truffle

Alba (home of the white truffle) main square
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We arrived in Turin via train from Zurich late in the afternoon, decided (stupidly?) to walk to Hertz from the train stations which turned out to be a little further than we expected...ouch! But taking those packs off felt REALLY good.

We hired the smallest car that Hertz do (Lancia Ypsilon), as something about zipping around the hills of Piedmont in a tin can that sounded like a small sewing machine appealed to us. One pack in the boot and the other on the back seat and we were off!

'Hiking' through Piedmonte (looking back over Sinio)
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Tracey's navigating left a lot to be desired as we took a very roundabout route to the Agritourismo we were staying on. Simon's patience (which can sometimes be a little short) took a hammering from Tracey's dithering on the maps, Italian nonexistent or completely crowded signposts, and Italian driving in general. What a relief to arrive intact at 'Cascina Sant Eufemia' near the small village of Sinio and find out that our hosts were easily the friendliest most easy going, helpful 'hotel' owners we have ever met.

Autumnal Dolcetto (local grape variety) vines
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They immediately booked us in to a local restaurant and even drove in front of us all the way there (so we didn't get lost...still had to get home though...). The restaurant was brilliant. VERY local (music stops as you walk in, no one speaks a word of English, and you're regarded with deep deep suspicion), but absolutely amazing. There was no menu, the food just kept on coming. After 5 dishes we thought the owner was having a laugh when she said 'primi piatti...tagliatelle' - we had only just made it past antipasti. 3 hours later we rolled out of there very full, having forgotten the horrors of the drive down and very very happy.

Mad (as cheese) local who insisted we tried 5 of his wines (the hiking got much easier after leaving his farm)
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Piedmont lives in the shadow of Tuscany, but seems just as good, if not even better as the tourists haven't got their greasy little paws under the skin of Piedmont yet (yes, we know we're tourists...shhhh). In the four days we were in Piedmont, we visited beautiful little villages, Alba (home of the truffle and the slow food movement), Bra, Grinzane Cavour, Serallunga d'Alba, Roddinio, Barolo (home, of course, of the very famous Barolo wine). A combination of zooming around in our sewing machine and hiking the hills through vineyards and orchards filled our days quite happily. When I say filled...that's not really in the sense of a 'full' day back home, we seem to have settled in to a rhythm of doing 'sightseeing stuff' from the morning until about 3pm and then heading home for relaxing, diary writing, reading, sleeping until dinner.

Classic shot of Piedmont vineyards
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Simon spent quite a bit of time in these 'relaxing' hours with the owners of Cascina Sant Eufemia down in their small winery, learning about the local wines, and their operation there, bottling, labelling and selling their wines. As it would have been rude not to, we also spent some time sampling their wines (by the bottle). We both spent a fair bit of time cooking as well, seeing as we had a studio room, and by the end of the four days, the room and all of our clothes smelled very strongly of truffles...pretty pongy, but hey, there are worse smells in the world (try sitting downstairs at Gare de Lyon in Paris). Steer clear of the 'Blue Room' at Cascina Sant Eufemia for a month or two but definitely, definitely, pay them a visit.

Close up of Nebbiolo grape vines
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Next stop - Cinque Terra.

Ciao