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What region is best for you?
Discover what regions offer you the experiences you're dreaming of.
Piedmont
Do you love top red wines, want to sample a different and outstanding Italian cuisine, enjoy walks in beautiful wine country and like meeting lots of friendly local characters? Yes? Piedmont is for you!
Piedmont lies in the north west corner of Italy and borders France to the west and mountains to the north. Turin and some mountain villages to the west were the homes of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Turin
Turin, the capital of Piedmont, has a historic centre with some Baroque buildings, elegant, 19th century cafes and the rich Royal Palace, still glittering in gold.
The Egyptian museum is second only to the one in Cairo. The Cinema Museum tracing the history of Italian cinema is well done and great fun. I also enjoyed the Chagall show at the Modern Art Museum.
Turin is full of tempting gastronomic and other shops, good restaurants and cultural events like symphony and opera. It’s a very walkable city with a series of covered arched sidewalks.
Barolo & Barbaresco Wine Country: Home to Some of Italy’s Top Reds
The famous, magnificent Barolo and Barbaresco wine country, an hour south of Turin, will awe you with its series of gentle hills and valleys covered in vineyards, fields and forests. Little towns with imposing medieval castles crown some hill tops. On a clear day you can see the Alps. Peaceful walking paths take you through vineyards and hills with lovely panoramas—good for your soul!
The rich, fertile soil yields the famous white truffles of Alba, hazelnuts, mushrooms, peaches, cherries and lots of fruit, sweet peppers and lots of vegetables and of course the grapes for robust and aromatic wines. |
 Carmen, Massimo and Margaret at Ratti winery museum for wine tasting
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The
Wines
Barolo is one of Italy’s top red wines, ranking with Brunello
of Montalcino in Tuscany. You’ll discover a wonderful hierarchy
of red wines from robust Barolo and elegant Barbaresco to mid range
full bodied Barbera and Nebbiolo to younger, fruity Dolcetto. Winery
visits can range from the famous to the not yet famous, from the
big to small so you get a real feel for the culture and people behind
the wines. Very hospitable winery owners love telling you all about
their wines, as you drink them together.
Wine
Towns
Explore the nine Barolo and three Barbaresco wine towns, small places
where life goes at a slower pace. Tour the castles like the one in the town of
Barolo where Barolo wine began, eat top quality food whether at
a trattoria or a Michelin star restaurant. Stroll around Alba, the
area hub, known for its medieval towers in its compact historic
centre, its gastronomy shops with names like “Sins of the
Throat”, markets, fall white truffle fair.
Cooking school and wine tours in the Barolo wine country
The
Outstanding Cuisine
The outstanding cuisine mixes Italian country style with French
influences. Piedmont is famous for its incredible array of hot and
cold appetizers like spinach flan with fonduta sauce, bagna cauda
(raw or cooked vegetables dipped in a hot sauce of olive oil, garlic,
anchovies), roasted peppers with tuna stuffing.
Pasta is limited
to the delicate, thin tajarin (tagliatelle) and the “melt
in your mouth” agnolotti (stuffed pasta) with butter and sage
leaves. Risotto made with Barolo or with Castelmagno cheese is especially
good.
Meats are often
simmered long and slowly like the famous, rich Brasato al Barolo,
a veal roll simmered in vegetables, herbs and copious quantities
of Barolo.
Desserts
range from hazelnut chocolate cake with Moscato (dessert wine) zabaglione,
to pears simmered in Barolo, to semi freddo with torrone (hazelnut
nougat).
For cooking school tours in the Piedmont region please see www.italycookingschools.com/piedmont.html
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