Piedmont

The final leg of the Italy dream trip was to Piedmont.  Five days driving through the wine country of Barolo, Barbaresco, Roero - the Langhe hills.  This place in particular holds a special spot in my heart, as throughout the years of hanging with my crew at Buona Terra (if ever in Chicago check it out!) we spent countless nights hashing out all of life's ins and outs while reviewing in detail the varietals of this region.

Barolo is considered the king of wines, only to be rivalled by France's Burgundy as the finest in the world.  The geographical region is actually quite small, and when on top of one of the many hilltops you can see it all in one breathtaking view.

We started out this leg of the trip taking the train from Cinque Terra to Genoa airport to pick up our little car and took our time driving along the coast before heading north.  The landscape quickly changed to lush, green mountains with highways either suspended between them or purging through them via long black tunnels.

After a lovely two hour drive we were in wine country.  Piedmont stands for "foot of the mountain" and is green planes resting at the foot of the Alps.  I had picked out our room at a converted castle, Castello di Sinio, and no doubt I felt like a princess the entire time!  What a room!  Three directional views of the vineyards from the top of a stone castle!  From the sunset views, the comfy bed, the decadent breakfast buffet to the Michelin rated birthday dinner, it was ridiculous!

That Saturday was the opening day of the Alba Truffle Market, and we were just a 15 minute drive from Alba, one of the larger towns in the region.  I have met only one person who said they didn't like truffles (and I'm talking about the fungus, not chocolate), but I am still convinced they clearly were delusional.  The truffle, for whatever reason, holds an intoxicating aroma and nearly all who encounter its glory are hooked.

So much so that a truffle now sells at more per ounce than gold, and this was the time of year when they are harvested in the place in the world where they are found naturally and those with hundreds of extra dollars for mushrooms come to buy up their crop.  It was pretty cool to be there ... we smelt quite a few of them, bought up truffle oil, truffle cheese, truffle salami, and even had a bowl of fresh pasta with truffle grated on top.  Never got tired of it.

The remainder of the time we spent driving to the little villages each with their own castle, seeing the views and visiting their enotecas, picnicking, and of course eating at some great restaurants.  There was a little pizzeria within walking distance of our room that did heart-shaped pizzas that were delicious, and we took a risk at a place that did not come highly recommended to have what turned out to be the best meal of the trip (though best one course still goes to the risotto in Santa Margherita!).

We walked in and food just started showing up at our table ... no menu, just a decadent six course meal of tartare with porcini, truffle/parmigiana soup with quail egg, artichoke cannelloni, sausage pasta, panna cotta with poached pears ... whew.  All run by what appeared to be a two person show, along with their dog and a story of a pet pig that was stolen long ago.

We did make it inside one winery via a much appreciated hook up from my Chicago crew (most do not allow walk-ins), and it was cool to see how it all came together ... a seemingly impossible small operation, run mostly by family, but distributed throughout the world at a premium price.  Though I could have sent home cases, I carefully selected four bottles along the trip to be my souvenirs ... we'll see how long those last!!

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