We recently spent a week in Piemonte. We’d heard lots about the rolling hills around Barolo and Barbaresco and of the many vineyards and great food and wine. So, we decided to check it out.
We based ourselves at an AirBnb in San Donato, close to Mango, and the interesting locations were only around a 30 to 40 minute drive away. Our plan was to discover the area in the mornings, long lunches and then some relaxing siesta time at the pool. Unfortunately, on the day we arrived the pool pump was broken and couldn’t be fixed until the day before we left, letting our pool plans fall through – what a disappointment ☹!
Our first visit was to Alba, a pretty city with a historic centre, a nice shopping promenade at Via Vittorio Emanuele and some restaurants around the cathedral. From the Piazza Duomo you can see some towers on the buildings – these were built in the 14th and 15th centuries by families as an indication of their wealth and status. Alba was once known as the city of 100 towers but nowadays there are only 3 that are still well preserved.
Alba is also known as the capital of the white truffle. We were a month early for this special gourmet treat and the truffle festivals that take place in October. But we were able to eat some black truffles with homemade pasta, which was really nice, but a bit bland compared to the taste of white truffles. The black truffle is also much cheaper than the white, whereas a kilo of white truffle sometimes costs over USD 4’000.-, making it the most expensive food on the planet (hard to believe…)!
At lunch time we left the city for a restaurant in the country. We stopped at the Trattoria Nelle Vigne in Diano d’Alba, and being a Sunday it was fully booked… but… we were very lucky as just as we were walking away, they called us back after just having received a cancellation! The food was amazing and we really enjoyed a ‘small' lunch with 5 antipasti, 1 primo piatto and dessert. We say small, because we had to skip the secondo piatto - the main dish – as we were stuffed! Part of the lunch included some very typical Piemonte dishes: delicious anchovies in a hazelnut sauce, the famous Vitello Tonnato and the traditional Ravioli del Plin as well as many more local dishes. We can highly recommend this restaurant and the views from this area are some of the best.
We usually chose the house wine and were never disappointed. There is a good variety of wine from different grapes to taste: Nebbiolo (used for the famous Barolo and Barbaresco wines), Barbera and Dolcetto. The Dolcetto doesn’t need a prime sunny location like the Nebbiolo grapes do. The area also produces some lovely white wines. Chardonnay, Moscato, Arneis and - our surprising discovery - the fruity Favorita.
We didn’t do any wine-tasting at wineries on this trip as there was enough opportunity to try different wines with our meals. But we did stop at La Spinetta in the middle of the Moscato wine area, known for the sweet and bubbly Moscato d’Asti wine. We already knew La Spinetta because of their excellent red wine called Cà di Pian - a 100% Barbera wine and we love their Rhino label 😊.
Hazelnuts are the other main agricultural product of the area. Higher up in the hills, there are large plantations and hazelnuts are also often part of the local cuisine.
After a week in the UNESCO recognised Wold Heritage landscape of Langhe it was very obvious that this region is all! about food and wine. Wherever you look, the hills are covered in vineyards. You can stop almost everywhere and get a good shot. Just like here on our way from Mango to Castagnole delle Lanze.
The area around Barbaresco is very pretty. From Barbaresco we drove towards the Fletcher winery where we stopped for a walk through the vineyards. The views from here to the river and over to the village of Barbaresco really are lovely.
When we walked back to our car, we watched how they were thinning out the grapes from the vines to increase the quality of the harvest. This place was beautiful, and we had it all to ourselves.
In Barbaresco we visited the tower but didn’t go right up to the top. There is a very nice and interesting gallery showing the wine producers from this area. From the many great portraits we of course chose the one with a dog in it 😊.
Nearby at Tre Stelle we found the Osteria taSté, another great place to enjoy lunch, set on a shady terrace with great views towards Barbaresco. Here you can see that some of the vineyards are not laid planted horizontally but vertically. This is the typical planting layout of the famous wine producer Gaja.
There are several little towns we visited in this area. They are almost always on top of a hill and some of them also have a castle such as Serralunga d’Alba or Grinzane Cavour. They’re pretty with old houses, one or two restaurants but otherwise there’s not really much to do and there aren’t really any quaint little shops to have a look around in.
We wanted to do a bit of shopping and thought we may find something good in Asti. But for us it wasn’t worth the drive, there’s no real historic town and no pedestrian zone with any interesting shops (or we didn’t find them…). We did find a couple of interesting little corners in the town but overall we found Asti lacked the atmosphere of Alba.
Barolo with its old castle is one of the most well-known villages of this region. It’s worth a visit to see the old houses around the castle. The place we liked was behind the castle with a pretty little square and church. There are many restaurants in Barolo and we wanted to book a table at the restaurant Locanda in Cannubi but the place was fully booked, even for the month following and this even outside of the white truffles season!
Apart from restaurants and villages we did discover some other highlights: On a little side road from Barolo to La Morra there was this colourful little chapel called Cappella delle Brunate. Artists had beautifully re-designed it and it’s located right in the middle of the vineyards. A great location for a selfie together with Mara, our 3 year old chocolate labrador who joined our family 3 months ago 😊.
Nearby is the Panchina Gigante Rossa. This giant bench is part of a community project with over 150 benches spread all over the Langhe area. The idea came from Chris Bangle a former engineer who retired in this area.
At the top of the hill is La Morra with the Capella del Barolo, a delightful chapel, and the popular Belvedere di La Morra with great views of Barolo and other villages.
From La Morra there are some good walking opportunities where you’ll be surrounded by vineyards. But for us without any trees for shade, it was already too hot. Generally, we found the hiking paths a bit difficult to spot so we found a map that showed a nice looking hike, the Sentiero Belvedere that was very close to our rented house. With a lovely name like that we decided to do it.
We started our walk at the Cappelletta San Donato. At first, we were walking through woods and hazelnut plantations. Then the scenery opened up to beautiful views of Mango and the other valleys. There weren’t any other hikers along the way, but we did meet 2 dogs.
Coming out of another woody area we then took the path up a little hill through the vineyards and were delighted to see a Big Chair at the top. This one was part of a second community project called The Big Chair. The setting of this Big Chair was our favourite one. This place was also really special as you can only get there on foot and there are many beautiful views to take in.
In the middle of the vineyards there was an old tractor but no driver, so we had a little go ourselves 😉 – Mara thought the whole thing was pretty amusing! After the hike, we headed back to where we were staying for our final lunch on our own terrace.
For our last dinner in Piemonte we’d booked a table at a place we’d been earlier in the week – for us a real highlight: the Agriturismo Brusalino. Here you can take in the view at sunset along with a glass of their really nice Chardonnay, followed by dinner at their restaurant. Our favourite anti pasti was the carpaccio with gorgonzola and hazelnut sauce – a must-try. And on our drive home we even saw a family of wild boar darting through the vineyards.
We had a great time in Piemonte and indulged in so much food that our clothes are just a little bit tighter than before…
In our next Italy blog we’ll cover Tuscany, where the scenery is more diverse, there are different cultural experiences to be had, many beautiful places to be seen – and… there are many great shoe shops and boutiques😊.
Our other published blogs of the series 'Our favourite places in Bella Italia' cover the following areas (with links):
Part 1: Milan - Milano
Part 2: Venezia
Part 3: Amalfi
Part 4: Puglia
Part 5: Cinque Terre
"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"
(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)
Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker
© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker