Take a hike to savour ’s many flavours

by KEREN LAVELLE

IEDMONT, a region in northern Italy, Pis famous for food. It’s where the “slow food” movement started in the 1980s, as a reaction to the global spread of “same- same” fast food outlets. Apart from its majestic capital , the rest of is the opposite of a DISCOVER THE city: it’s very rural, with small towns filled with the love of the good life and people whose energies are directed towards wine and gastronomic festivals. + FREE FLIGHTS Autumn is the peak season here, both because it’s harvest time and the time when truffles – the black and the rarer white – are fruiting underground in the forests. It’s the season I’ve chosen to travel on Hedonistic Hiking’s Jewels of Piedmont ZLWKVSHFWDFXODUJRUJHVGHVRODWHPRXQWDLQVDQGPDJQLȴFHQW tour, which places great focus on food and wine, balanced with a moderate amount of walking. The tour also includes lots of &KDX΍HXUGULYHQWUDQVIHUVWRIURPDLUSRUW other surprises. At the start I’m not sure what I’m look- ing forward to the most: probably the food! Our first stop is at lunchtime, in Racogniggi, at the Ristaronte Da Mose. Cinzia Long, our specialist local food and history (these last two are intermin- guide, liaises with all the restaurants to gled in Italy, that’s for sure), and punctuat- choose our menus. Breads, mineral water ed by great meals (picnics you hike to are and wine quickly appear, followed by a specialty), sampled with local wine, beer antipasti. and spirits. Cinzia explains the dishes and wines We sleep each night in boutique hotels – we are being served. I learn that grissini four nights in a restored medieval farm- (breadsticks), were invented in the region- house, three nights in an elegant estab- al capital Turin (where we have all just lishment in a tiny town, . met up), and that handmade, uneven, On this trip Jackie is our lead guide, crispy ones dusted with cornmeal are the aided by Cinzia, while Mick is busy lead- local favourites. ing a tour in southern Italy. The antipasti include one of my Jackie weaves a history lesson of the favourites, vitello tonnato, thin slices of region throughout the week. veal in a creamy tuna sauce. It’s surpris- After our lunch, we begin in the 17th ing just how well these disparate ingredi- century on our private visit to the Castle ents team up together. I’m also very happy of Racogniggi, the summer palace of the with the tartra piedmontese (a savoury royal house of Savoy. Our guide Fulvia flan), and a fresh cheese, tomina, dressed explains how the castle was originally a with herbs. I somehow make room for the fort in the possession of the marquesses dessert, semi-freddo ice cream with a of in the 13th century, but in the chocolate pudding called bunet, named 16th century it was acquired by the House after the hat-shaped copper mould it’s tra- of Savoy, a family with territory in France ditionally set in. and Italy, who turned it into a pleasure I imagine that Jackie and Mick palace. Parsons, Hedonistic Hiking’s owner-opera- The Savoy family – and the Piedmont tor guides, must have fun dreaming up region – became key players in the unifica- their judicious holiday mixtures: hikes – tion of Italy, and united Italy’s royal fami- through man-made landscapes, towns, ly. The last King of Italy, Umberto II, was farms and vineyards, and wilderness born in this palace in 1904. areas – interspersed with doses of culture After checking into our farmhouse NUTTING IT OUT – The first day’s hike through chestnut forests (above). Opposite page, a good truffle dog is worth his weight in gold. hotel on the outskirts of Saluzzo, we head We walk up a narrow cobbled street ters: nine male “worthies” such as wispy bits of string. back further into the medieval past with a past a more improvised market: people Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, Their cowbells make enchanting visit to Staffarda Abbey, founded by a mar- from out of town have brought in their and their female equivalents. Alas, our sounds, but the blissful mood is interrupt- quis of Saluzzo in the early 12th century. hand-picked harvests. guide knows nothing about the women. On ed when we reach our picnic spot at the The monks have long gone, but there’s a We keep climbing up and up, past a film the opposite wall are somewhat risque village of Elva, with its beautifully fres- great bar, where we are treated to an set where actors in 1930s-40s period dress scenes of rejuvenation at the Fountain of coed parish extra-dry spumante sparkling wine, lounge around waiting for their cue (“No Youth: it’s all a bit different from church get permission from the local priest for us cheeses and meats, and the restaurant Il photo, no photo!” insists a wrangler). frescoes. to picnic Sigillo, where we manage to consume a We pause for a visit to the Casa The worthies in our group are inspired women decide to order us out. banquet featuring dishes such as risotto Cavassa, a Renaissance-era palazzo to walk back to the hotel before we We move to the town square for a stand- with dried porcini mushrooms, and roast restored in the 19th century, now a muse- regroup for dinner. up picnic guinea fowl with a muscat wine reduction. um. We stroll further, along lanes through Jackie and Cinzia take us to the restau- another Cinzia later explains that “the purpose chestnut woods, arriving outside the 13th rant Quat Taulin, specialising in regional around, blocking the views. of restaurants here is to do things you century castle, Manta. cuisine, with a menu written entirely in Cloud can’t do at home”, so despite her requests Before we enter Manta Castle, it’s pic- the Piedmontese dialect. The several day as well, after we drive along the fertile for vegetables to be included, they very nic time. To make up for the lack of veg- courses of fairly simple, fresh food – espe- Pope Valley and then upwards to tackle rarely are. etables in our restaurant diet, Cinzia has cially the feather-light gnocchi with a judi- the lower reaches of Monviso. But we are Il Sigillo manages to serve what it calls prepared two salads – one of roasted cap- cious mixture of cheese, cream and butter blessed with some brilliant views before an eggplant stew, but it’s topped by a sicum (red and the local yellow variety), – are delightful. We don’t manage to get the weather closes in. hearty almond-encrusted trout fillet. As and a mixed green salad – and she has around to sampling any of the fascinating After we are leaving, there’s a glimpse of a shopped for cheeses and salamis, breads, local cheeses on a table at the back of the snow has fallen, and we are decked out in beautiful mountain on the horizon. wine, fruit and cakes. restaurant. full hiking “That’s Monviso,” says Jackie, “where we Jackie entertains us by reading one of The hiking ante gets upped the next day we set off fuels our ascent. will be hiking in a couple of days’ time.” the Tales of the Decameron by Boccaccio – after we drive to the Colle di , a We pass some beautiful mountain lakes, We get some practice the next day by the story of patient Griselda, the much mountain pass 2285 metres high in the and on the hiking into the centre of Saluzzo, where put-upon wife of Gualtieri, a fictional mar- Cottian Alps. We take it easy by descend- the river Po. Needless to say, we all feel the Saturday markets are in full swing. quis of Saluzzo. ing to begin with, walking through a farm virtuousl While there are clothing and shoe stalls, One stunning feature of Manta, home where the family is starting to pack up to another most of the market is devoted to food: an to the real marquesses of Saluzzo, is a hall move their herds into the valley for win- It’s time for a change of scene the next autumnal array of vegetables, plus fresh with well-preserved frescoes painted in ter. Piedmontese cows seem very happy to day. We move into new digs in La Morra, pastas, cured meats and even fresh fish. the 1420s. These have unusual subject mat- be confined in fields fenced in only by Step out to taste Italy I From Page 5 stopping at the medieval town en route, where we pay a visit to master chocolatier Riccardi Mauro. Since the 17th century chocolate has been big in Piedmont. Both drinking chocolate and gianduiotto, the hazelnut-chocolate spread (later reaching brand fame as Nutella), were invented here. Mauro makes a diverse and imaginative range of chocolates. I become partic- ularly fond of his choco- late-coated sage leaves. Somehow, all this sam- STEP IN TIME – Walking through the vineyards in pling doesn’t dampen our UNESCO-listed heritage areas. enthusiasm for lunch at La ld Morra’s Bovio restaurant overlooking valleys full of vineyards. This patchwork IF YOU GO... landscape of carefully culti- THE Jewels of Piedmont tour will be offered from June vated slopes sprinkled with 23-30 and October 25-November 1 at a cost of 2895 hilltop villages, castles, Euros per person with a single supplement of 200 Romanesque churches and Euros – www.hedonistichiking.com.au farmhouses, was recognised with a UNESCO World evening at the Castle of the menu when we dine in Heritage listing in 2014. Grinzane Cavour. The his- the castle’s Michelin- This landscape is our toric castle was once the starred restaurant and, of new walking terrain over home of Count Cavour, the course, we drink . the next few days. statesman of Italian unifi- Moreover, one of our We also learn from cation, and it is the only tour party, an opera singer, winemakers who make built element of the decides to pay homage to Barolo and Barbaresco, the UNESCO World Heritage Italian culture, entertain- classic wines which landscape listing. ing us and the restaurant Piedmont produces. We It houses a showcase staff by singing an aria visit Alba, home of a truf- enoteca (wine shop) and a from Verdi’s La Traviata. fle festival, and have an museum featuring displays What to say about the exciting evening excursion on Cavour and wine pro- whole experience, but with a professional truffle- duction. It’s also where the “Brava!”? hunter and his truffle dog, annual fundraising auction * Keren Lavelle travelled searching for the aromatic of white truffles takes to Italy at her own expense fungi worth almost as place as part of the Alba and was a guest of much as gold. Truffle Festival. Hedonistic Hiking on this We spend our last Naturally, truffles are on tour.