Barolo Wine Country

With family in town for the week, I played hooky and we crossed another item off our "places to see in Italy before we leave" list. We've spent plenty of time in Piedmont but never visited Alba or Bra.

Alba is home to the great northern Italian festival for the white truffle. That's usually in November so our timing was a bit off but we had beautiful weather and strolled around town, visiting the Duomo (photo at top) and taking in the red brick buildings. We had a wonderful meal in town at a restaurant recommended by the Osterie d'Italia. Lalibera specializes in cuisine of the region and was heavy on veal, rabbit, pigeon, and other delicacies.


After lunch, we hopped into the car and headed to the Langhe hills and the infamous Barolo wine-growing region. Our appointment was at the Renato Ratti cantina for a 45 minute long tour, followed by a wine tasting. The tour was extensive. While we've visited a few cellars and producers during out time in Italy, Renato Ratti is the biggest producer (though they're considered medium size). They produce a couple kinds of Barolo, plus a delicious Nebbiolo and the typical Barbera and Dolcetto d'Alba of the region. We came away with a few bottles of Barbera and Nebbiolo as "souvenirs" of our time. The tasting was generous and delicious, we sampled their nice Barolo (retails for $60+) and did I mention it was all free?


Not wanting to spend the last hours of daylight in the car heading back to Milan, we decided to head to Bra, another nearby town, for dinner and a stroll. Bra is the home of the Slow Food movement (so don't mention McDonald's!) The movement was founded in 1986 to fight against the globalization of food and unhealthy eating habits. Now, there are over 80 thousand members in over 100 countries! The provincial town is also rich in architecture - the church of San Andrea was designed by Bernini - and we enjoyed some star-gazing and another round of the region's wines before heading back to the bright lights of the big city.

Lalibera: Via Pertinace, 24A, Alba
Renato Ratti: Frazione Annunziata, 7, La Morra