zeppole

Chris, how you describe your meat eating preferences doesn't translate to me as you being vegetarian, so I see no reason for you to avoid the dishes Zerlina mentioned. You can read up on agnolotti in this link. It's a classic Piemontese dish you might want to sample, but it is by no means Piemonte's only great pasta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnolotti

I think Zerlina was concerned I'd left you with the impression that you'll only see meat on the menu in Piemonte as an entree. If if left you with that impression, I didn't mean to! As I said, you will need to recognize the Italian names for meats -- "carne" "salume" "vitello" etc -- Plotkin is a great guide for the terms you are most likely to encounter in Piemonte.

But I do want to assure you that will readily find in Piemonte a very wide selection of pasta dishes and risotto without any meat at all. Agnolotti is not the norm. And if you find meat being offered as an anti-pasta, it will be the entire dish . You won't have to worry about ordering something and surprised it contains meat. But you will not find many "secondo" courses in Piemonte that are not all about meat. There are some with eggs and fish, but Piemonte is notoriously meaty.

Allesandria, Acqua Terme, Asti and Alba roughly make the "square" corners of the heart of Piemonte's wine region. Asti and Acqua Terme draw some sightseers into their historic centers. Assesandria less so. Cadogan will give you an exhaustive description of everything of cultural interest, and I believe Plotkin mentions all four as well. They might have cultural or gastronomic attractions for you. Can't tell!

-

zeppole

Here is a nice link from the city of Torino itself that talks about some of the most commonly enjoyed dishes of the region. (It includes a vegetable entree I had forgotten, peperoni farciti à la Piemontaise, which is red peppers stuffed with rice (but not just any rice -- Piemontese rice!)

http://www.comune.torino.it/canaletu...gastronomy.htm

zeppole

And sorry for my mistaken spelling -- it's Acqui Terme.

ekscrunchy

Also, Chris will be in the region during truffle season!

zeppole

I was thinking of truffles and eggs as I was typing!

(eks, a gastronomic tourist shop recently opened down on the lungomare and it sells chopped truffles from Albenga in olive oil, 4 euros for a small jar. One jar makes a fantastic risotto! I'm stunned these truffles are so tasty. But even I can't face stirring risotto in summer -- or the richness of truffles. We've been eating tomato salad with anchovies since June!)

JulieVikmanis

If you decide to spend all of your time in Piemonte you might want to break it up even more than has been suggested. Try spending most of the time in Alba at Favorita, a few nights in Turin itself, and then for the luxury honeymoon part a restful 2 days at San Maurizio. The latter appears from everything I've seen to be the true luxury winner in the area, but it is in the middle of nowhere and hard to reach (lots of hills and narrow roads, etc) so once you get there, you'd want to stay there and just relax and pamper yourselves before moving on to some sightseeing or returning home. I would think a car is a necessity in the area no matter where you choose to stay if you're really going to see the place and eat well. Enjoy.

Marija

Drats, Julie. Everytime I decide that we'll be OK in Turin for a week without a car, taking daytrips by train and bus, there's a post that makes me reconsider. You mention "eat well." For us that includes wine and precludes driving afterwards, not because we can't but because we're cautious. That's a big reason why we're avoiding a car. Will Piemonte without a car really disappoint?

zeppole

Marija,

Not answering for JulieV, but La Favorita doesn't serve dinner, which means driving into Alba for dinner. But there are lots of places to stay right in Alba.

From the way Julie describes San Maurizio, even with a car it's all about staying put and not using it as a base for sightseeing. So if you were willing to take public transportation to a point near there and then pay for a taxi transfer, you could have that experience. And there are many other agriturismo and wineries with lodging that fit that description with great reputations for food, some of them closer to pubic transportation hubs than San Maurizio.

Even if I had a car in Piemonte, I wouldn't drink and drive. I'd stay in a place that serves dinner.

However, were I in Torino for a week, using public transportation to Alba, Vercelli and other destinations for lunches, I don't think I would exhaust the great restaurant possibilities in Torino in a week:

http://goitaly.about.com/od/turintor...restaurant.htm

http://www.my-italy-piedmont-marche-...-in-italy.html

What you can't do in Piemonte -- or anywhere in Italy -- is go to a legendary restaurant that takes a car to get to if you don't have a car! But there is more than one legendary restaurant in Piemonte, and many are in Torino, Asti, Alba, Vercelli and other destianations reachable by public transport.

zeppole

PS Marija, I meant to add that Fred Plotkin's book has recommendations for many places in towns that are a day trip from Torino, plus many recommendations for Torino itself, more than you eat in a week.

If you will be disappointed not to see the Langhe hills, you should rent a car and stay someplace where you can eat a great dinner without driving home.

ChrisX2

JulieV- Thank you for your suggestion, that's what I was thinking. I think I will get a car just to allow us the possibilty of further exploration if we choose. By the way, enjoyed reading your piedmont report.

Thanks all for the food information. I'm no longer concerned about eating well!

Marija

Thanks, zeppole. I needed to hear that again!

I'm about to book this B&B http://www.suitestorino.it, which was described in the article you mentioned, http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...eakfasts-italy. My concern is that I can't find any info about it other than snippets from the same article. What do you think?

ekscrunchy

There is a pathway from Villa La Favorita to Alba center that cuts down the walking time. I did not take this walk but Roberta mentioned it. If you want to eat dinner in Alba, the drive back to the villa is simplicity itself..no more than 5 minutes in a relatively straight shot. I am a squeamish driver, especially at night, and I found the driving in this region to be very easy. See map:


http://www.villalafavorita.it/road_uk.html

The more I think about this, the more I agree with the idea mentioned above of staying in Turin and in two other places as well. The quality of both the accommodations and the restaurants is so high that you really could choose a restaurant and then just look for a nearby hotel or B&B.

ChrisX2

Julie V - If you're still reading this, can you explain again about how you brought wine back to the states? From what I read you went to a Mailboxs Etc! in La Morea and purchased a wine box and were able to check it and carry it through customs by listing "food etc" on the customs form. Is that correct? We definitely want to bring back (or ship) as much wine as possible.

Thank you!

ChrisX2

Eks et al -

What is the best restaurant (slow food) guide? I see that you recommended

Fred Plotkin's great book has a good list of Italian food terms and translations


http://www.amazon.com/Italy-Gourmet-...0356532&sr=1-1

Do you prefer that over one of the Slow Food books?

Thanks!

Zerlina

Having been reprimanded on another thread, and

Bearing in mind
- that Zeppole refrained from an outright recommendation of the Castello di Sinio, where she has evidently not stayed or eaten, and
- that Zeppole stated that one reason for posting a link to the Castello di Sinio's site was for its list of Piedmont attractions,

I humbly submit
- that the Castello di Sinio is run by Americans for Americans, and
- that, for this reason, I do not consider the Castello di Sinio appropriate for consideration by anyone looking for an authentic (I hate the word but can think of no other) Piedmont experience.

JulieVikmanis

ChrisX, Sorry, it wasn't me who brought the wine home. Perhaps it was someone else who responded to my trip report. Do a search on La Morea and see if you can find out who did it. (Or should that be La Morra?)

Since so much of the beauty that we found in Piemonte was in driving about from small village to small village through the "winefields," I cannot imagine not having a car to enjoy that but there are some arguments here that may prove it can be done without a car. We stayed at La Marcarini which is very much off on its own. Even to take a taxi into Alba so as not to have to park during the Truffle festival parade, etc. we had to drive several miles to meet the taxi at its stopping place.

You are, of course, wise to think about not driving after a wonderful dinner with lots of the great Piemonte wines so you might want to identify a place where there are lots of good restaurants within walking distance. Three very good ones are in Treiso but unfortunately I cannot identify a hotel there. I find several Agriturismos but my best guess is that they are more than walking distance from the town with its three wonderful restaurants all within a block of each other. Alba would seem the most logical place to put down to find many restaurants within walking distance. Unfortunately there the hotels other than the well regarded Villa Favorita appeared to me rather charmless. I find this often the case--that places with lots of restaurants tend not to have cute, charming hotels and the cute, charming hotels seem to have limited restaurants nearby. It turned out for us that with a little bit of driving we were able to access many wonderful restaurants near La Marcarini even though the place itself was within walking distance of nothing but its own vineyards. It's close to Treiso, Tre Stelle, Barbaresco and Alba, all of which have wonderful restaurants. Be sure if you decide on it (and it is wonderful) that you have a car with a working GPS.

JulieVikmanis

Oh, I forgot to say that I found some of my best restaurant info here on Fodors and on Chowhound and Egullet rather than in guidebooks.

zeppole

I agree with Zerlina (although she lost me on the reprimand part. I didn't know that Castello di Sinio was American owned and American oriented. I just had seen it showed up with recommendations in magazines and such. (Maybe that's why!) So I wouldn't stay there. But I do like it's web page summarizing Piemonte attractions until your Cadogan guide arrives.

ChrisX2,

It does occur to me to add that if you are not a red meat eater, you should ask for a wine recommendation with what you order -- or vice versa, if you want to try a famous Barolo, ask the restaurant to serve you a meal that goes with it, but tell them you prefer not to eat red meat.

Marija,

I can't advise about suitestorino. I bookmarked that article when it came out in hopes of going to Torino soon and it had intriguing suggestions, but now I am going elsewhere -- and I just passed on the info you.

zeppole

JulieVilmanis,

Did you figure out why guidebooks let you down? Sometimes for me the reason is that the guidebooks have a bias toward steering tourists to places with a view or "characteristic" decor, or near tourist sights. Sometimes, I just don't like eating what the guidebook writer likes eating. (Michelin and some UK guides can be problematic for me that way.)

In recommending the Cadogan Guide, I'm not recommending its restaurant recommendations. Only its descriptions of sights.

zeppole

I better substitute *returning to* Torino soon, so that's clear. I'm now *going to* Friuli.