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| Overlooking the Piemonte countryside from the hilltop town of La Morra |
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| Priceless old Barbaresco and Barolo wines |
We came to the Piemonte region of Italy to learn more about the
famous wines produced there: Barolo, the king of wines; and Barbaresco, the queen. But we got so much more than just fabulous
wine. The real treasure of the Piemonte is
not the wine, but the wonderful people who live here.
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| Wandering the ancient streets around the castle in the town of Barolo |
We have adopted a new style of travel now that we are out in the country; we have slowed down and are taking our time soaking up the special atmosphere, picking up some of the language, and enjoying the local people. On a typical day, we begin with breakfast at our B&B, and then we jump into our Punto for some village-hopping: meeting people, drinking wine, and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We brought CDs from home, so we roam the hills and dales with Italian opera playing away at full volume (Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti), providing the perfect backdrop for this lovely land. We usually eat a special lunch in one of the many medieval hilltop villages and end the day with a light homebrew dinner of cheese, sausage, bread, and of course, vino back at the B&B.
Our B&Bs in Alba and Asti
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| Rolling vine-covered hillsides of "Barolo Land." |
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| Frank eating breakfast (and getting high on Nutella fumes) in our Alba B & B |
Our room, the “purple room,” is perfectly charming with
so many decorative touches (all in purple, of course). And the room is as well-equipped as any we
have ever stayed in, from the waterfall shower with black exfoliating soap from
Morocco (Anne looks younger already LOL) to the magnificent terrace with potted
plants and a protective awning. As an
added bonus, from our terrace, we can see the Nutella factory across the street,
and every so often, we get a blast of Nutella sweetness in the air. By the way,
for any of you who do not know Nutella, it is a sugary chocolate spread made
with hazelnuts, and it tastes damn good, even tho it is probably no good for
you at all!!
Raffaelle and Lorenzo are so much fun to be around and more
than helpful. Our Italian is pathetic,
but luckily Lorenzo speaks English, and Raffaelle speaks French, so we end up
communicating in something we call “Franglishiano” – the amazing thing is that
we actually understand each other completely!
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| Renate, Julia, and Anne at our B & B near Asti |
For the second part of our countryside sojourn, we stayed
at a rural B&B just north of Asti.
This was a small, family-run operation on a farm-like setting, and we
thoroughly enjoyed Renate, Bruno, and their 34-year-old daughter Julia. We felt as if we had been adopted by this
friendly family. Italian language lessons from our new friends came
twice daily, but class became especially wild at night when Bruno brought out the Grappa
to aid the learning experience.
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| Bruno and Frank toasting the goodness of Grappa! |
We helped Renate and Julia with their English (and they
helped us with our pathetic Italian).
Frank also taught Julia some Russian since she wants to learn the basics
of that language. She was a very eager student. And since Bruno speaks
French, we switched to that when we spoke with him. It must have sounded like a European Union
convention when we all got together.
Plus Renate and Julia spoke at typical Italian warp speed, talking over each other and
correcting each other like some comedy routine.
It was hilarious!
Villages of the Piemonte
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| Having a ball in the Piemonte wine villages |
We spent our days roaming the friendly villages of this
very rural area where everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome. The Piemonte is still a fairly undiscovered
wine destination, so the locals are not jaded by swarming tourists. English is not spoken by many.
In the beautifully preserved village of Neive, we asked a young woman in a shop about wine tasting, and she got on the phone, called her friend Michela, and then left her store unattended to walk us up the hill and over to Michela’s great wine shop. Michela, by the way, gave us generous, free wine tastings and invaluable wine advice. Of course, we always end up buying from these people, but we never feel pressured. In fact, it doesn’t seem like a business transaction at all, more like an exchange among friends.
In the beautifully preserved village of Neive, we asked a young woman in a shop about wine tasting, and she got on the phone, called her friend Michela, and then left her store unattended to walk us up the hill and over to Michela’s great wine shop. Michela, by the way, gave us generous, free wine tastings and invaluable wine advice. Of course, we always end up buying from these people, but we never feel pressured. In fact, it doesn’t seem like a business transaction at all, more like an exchange among friends.
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| Impromtu wine tasting at Sylvia's place. What a spread! |
One day, we wandered into a wine shop and unintentionally
interrupted a family dinner. No problem;
the owner and her daughter-in-law Sylvia, took us down into their 15th
c. wine cellars for a quick peek and then offered us wine tastings that came
with breadsticks and slices of tasty salami.
Pretty soon, we felt like we were part of their family too. The wine we
bought was fabulous, but the story and the memories that go with it are
priceless!
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| Katarina serves up some "best of the best" Grappa! |
Every day brings a new memorable interaction like funny
Katarina who loved laughing with Frank while she poured us free tastings of
many Barolos. As we were buying a few bottles, she
insisted that Frank try her “best of the best” Grappa which turned out to be
the smoothest Grappa he has ever tasted. Man, was that good!
At the Boffa Cantina, we paid to taste two of winemaker
Carlo Boffa’s vinos: top notch Barbaresco
wines served with breadsticks and some incredible aged parmesan cheese (people
here never let you taste without some accompanying food). Then, Carlo took us out back to see the
gorgeous view of his vineyard from his terrace. All at once, he got super-generous, and started pouring us
freebies: Barbera, Dolchetto, and a delicious shot of Grappa. Once these people start giving, it’s as if
they can’t stop! They love to give presents to newcomers. How could we not buy
from them? But then, I’m sure they count
on that as part of their generous homespun PR.
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| The charming hilltop village of Montiglio |
Here is one of our best stories of all. One beautiful sunny day, we arrived in the hilltop
village of Montiglio and barely made it out of the car before a man named
Giorgio Macchia came over to chat, telling us all about the castle above us and
the pride of the village, the Church of San Giovanni. Giorgio, who spoke some English, is a town historian, and he was
anxious to share his knowledge. He STRONGLY
suggested that we see the church and explained that we would need a key to get
in.
We ate a great lunch at what may have been the only
restaurant in town, and soon Giorgio strolled into the restaurant carrying (you
guessed it!) the rather-large skeleton key to the ancient town church. Reluctantly, we walked about 3/4 of a mile to the church
(what choice did we have?), and when we arrived, there was Giorgio with the Mayor
of the village, Francesco Ciravegna!
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| Opening the door of the ancient church of San Giovanni |
Anne got to do an official opening of the ancient door lock
on the church door (using the aforementioned key) with cameras flashing. Not only Frank’s camera, but also the camera
of an old guy on a bicycle who had appeared out of nowhere (Frank thought this
dude might be the mayor’s personal cameraman and that this whole thing was a publicity stunt
to beef up the mayor’s image.) Anne felt
like the star of Montiglio LOL!
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| Anne and the Mayor of Montiglio, Francesco Ciravegna |
The Mayor and Giorgio proceeded to give us a personal tour of this church that dates back to the 12th c. and has some marvelous Romanesque
sculptures. After the tour, we said our farewells, and the mayor asked Frank, “May I kiss your wife?” Frank replied, “Okay, as long as it isn’t an American kiss!” This has happened before, and all Anne wants to know why these Italian men think they have to ask Frank’s permission to kiss her???
We wandered back into the village square, but our story
was not over yet. The mayor was already
there, shaking hands and talking with townspeople. He called us over to the village Gelateria
that was just opening up for the first time this season. And in honor of the occasion, the gelato was
free. Hey, count us in!
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| Free gelato (and maybe a little free PR) at Montiglio's Gelateria |
We got our free, scrumptious double-dip gelato cones, and
then the mayor insisted on taking a picture of us standing behind the ice cream
counter with the owners of the shop. By
this point, even Anne was thinking that we were going to end up in the local
newspaper -- guess we’ll never know for sure.
What a crazy, fun, and funny day! Hope Montiglio
re-elects this guy when the time comes around!!
Anybody who goes out of his way to entertain visitors like this is worthy
of holding office.
Other Sights of the Piemonte
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| Frank shares a good Barolo wine with Jesus and friends at "The Divine Bar" in the Barolo Wine Museum |
Of course. we didn’t spend all our time wine
tasting. We also visited two wine
museums (do you sense a theme here?). The
Barolo Wine Museum, known as WiMu, was one of the weirder museums we have ever seen. It was designed by the same guy who did the
Automobile and Cinema museums in Turin, and he really outdid himself here!
The museum is not so much about the nature of winemaking
as it is about trying to capture the essence of wine. Just to give you a flavor of the place: the
first room was about the beginning of time with fake birds flapping their wings
and ticking sounds like a room full of clocks in the background. A later room had something called “The Divine
Bar” with religious figures from history gathered around a wine bar. All we can say is that despite being pretty
much “out there,” the museum did make us thirsty!
One shocking bit of trivia: in ancient Rome, women were
not allowed to drink wine. The Romans
were deadly serious about this crime; the punishment for a drunken woman was
death!
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| Truffles for sale at the Piemonte's annual Truffle Auction |
A second wine museum in the town of Grinzane Cavour was a more traditional
type of wine museum. We especially
enjoyed the display on truffles, a pungent type of fungus that grows in these
parts. These funghi nuggets usually grow underground, and need to be ferreted out by a dog with a trained nose. How they ever train these mutts is a complete unknown. A truffle auction is held in the
Piemonte every year, and people pay as much as $100,000 for a truffle about the
size of a man’s fist.
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| The abbey of Santa Maria di Vezzolano |
In a real departure from wine, we visited the abbey in
Vezzolano, one of the most important Romanesque monuments in the Piemonte. Santa Maria di Vezzolano was built during the
12th-13th c.; when we visited, it was devoid of any people, yet the doors were wide open so anyone could walk in. It is perched on a wooded hill out in the countryside in a somewhat desolate location, and it felt as if some monks from the
Middle Ages might show up at any moment!
More pictures of the marvelous Piemonte:
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| Frank inspects the vines in Barolo |
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| Notice the snow-covered Alps in the distance |
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| Gorgeous rooftops and bell towers in the villages of the Piemonte |
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| So many wines, so little time |
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| Even the cows are extra friendly here in the Piemonte! |
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