From October through December, Alba and the Lange Hills in Italy’s southern Piedmont (Piemonte) region, south of Turin, it’s all about truffles. White truffles, to be exact, the most precious variety, known as “white diamonds.” Michelin-starred chefs think nothing of paying hundreds of dollars just to add a few tissue-thin shavings of Alba white truffles to a prized dish.
While the chefs gather for the annual truffle auction, and the trifolao (truffle hunters) take their dogs into the misty woods by dark of night, travelers can feast on far more than these pricey funghi. The best place to start a tour of the vineyard-covered hills that lie between Genoa and Milan, is the old Roman town of Alba. Deep inside its historic center, Cortile della Maddalena becomes “truffle central” through mid-November.
As I step into the Alba White Truffle Fair’s huge tent, the scent of fresh truffles is so thick in the air that I fully expect someone to charge me for breathing it. After all, at $2000 a pound, even a sniff is valuable
Long rows of booths display the best foods of the Piedmont – which to many educated pallates are also Italy’s best. I am offered samples of goats’ milk Gorgonzola, thin slices of salami and even thinner slices of proscuitto, both from the nearby town of Bra. A cheerful farmer proffers generous bites of Chevrin and Toma, one of the Piedmont’s best-known cheeses. Next to him are samples of hazelnut cake and toasted Piedmont hazelnuts in rich, dark chocolate.
The fair is a tasty sample of the region’s specialties, but it’s even more fun to drive through the hills seeking the producers. You can taste some of Italy’s best wines here, the Barolo and Barbaresco, or follow a honey trail to try chestnut blossom honey so dark and rich it’s often served with the local mountain cheeses.
It is easy to attend full- or half-day cooking classes or wine tasting lessons at an historic villa, visit the cookie-maker in Casale Monferrato to see Krumiri Rossi made, tour a grappa distillery in Altavilla Monferrato to see how this throat-scorching Italian favorite is made. Cascina del Cornale is a cooperative of farmers in Magliano Alfieri, where you can see the giant Madernassa pear trees that produce some of the finest fruit for eating out-of-hand. A wondrous array of farm cheeses are sold in the farm shop and served in their restaurant.
