Given Tuscany’s medieval and renaissance jewels, visitors often overlook Italy’s other wine region Piedmont. But with its delicious Barolo and Barbaresco wines, super restaurants and sculpted vine covered hillsides, Piedmont is a worthy culinary and scenic destination especially since it’s within easy reach of Milan. Best of all, you can get a great meal and a fantastic room at prices well below that of comparable establishments in Milan and much of Tuscany.

I discovered Piedmont as part of a visit to some wineries in Italy. I plan to return as I can easily incorporate this into a visit to Milan since it’s just around one and a half hours drive to most of the region’s towns. One of the best discoveries on my trip was my stay at Palas Cerequio (see review), which is set among the vineyards near the town of La Morra. Nothing beats being able to get up to see the sun rise on the Nebbiolo vines. By the way, a brisk walk on the steep hills is a great way to work off the pasta and Barolo wines.

The main city (and provincial capital) in Piedmont is Turin. It’s an industrial city, home to Fiat and to Juventus (for those of you who are soccer fans) so if you need to get your shopping fix, Europe’s largest Prada store is here. I found that Turin does have its charms and its share of history, as well as really good chocolate, but I can also understand why visitors may not rank it highly among Italy’s more illustrious cities. This is a working town and not a museum. Hence, if you’ve been shopping in Milan, I think you could skip a visit to Turin unless there are particular exhibits to visit or you plan to see the Shroud of Turin, which is now back on view. Personally, I don’t mind coming back here as I did enjoy just strolling around the city centre but my friends were less keen. It was a bit of a difficult adjustment for them to be in a bustling city after the languidness of the hill towns.

However, I think Alba deserves at least a half-day side trip. But try not to do it on Saturday morning when there’s a big market on (unless you feel like browsing). Most of the clothes sold looks like it’s not local and the stalls hide some of the historical facades. Alba is  well known for its truffles so there are lots of opportunities to pick up the fungus – in stores that is – when you’re walking around the old town.

I had a wonderful picnic here of cold cuts and cheese purchased from some delis. Do try raw beef sausage from Bra (Salsiccia di Bra), a town in Piedmont where the slow food movement originated, – it tastes much better than it sounds and is additive and preservative free. I also had a few good slices of Culatello (considered the best cut of ham). Also note that as with many of Italy’s smaller cities and towns, shops close at lunch and don’t reopen until mid-afternoon. I haven’t tried Alba’s Michelin 3-starred restaurant Piazza Duomo so this is another reason to come back.

The namesake hill towns of Barolo and Barbaresco are fairly small with Barolo a little larger and a bit more touristy. But Barolo does have decent wine stores and a wine museum while Barbaresco has some good restaurants. Arguably the best known Italian wine producer Gaja is based in Barbaresco but its winery is not open to the public.

Nonetheless there are other wineries one can arrange visits to. The staff at the hotels should be able to provide guidance ahead of visits. And in any case, the drive among and between these towns is scenic and worth the trip even if there are limited attractions in the towns themselves.  Incidentally, this part of Piedmont, the Langhe area, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There are fantastic places to eat in most of Piedmont’s towns. The region has 39 Michelin starred establishments and we especially enjoyed our dinner at the one-starred La Ciau del Tornavento in Treiso (see review). In addition, food prepared at Palas Cerequio was more than gratifying. We ate here on two nights, giving our hard working driver a chance to enjoy his wine.

Suggested Itinerary

Access: Piedmont is within easy reach of Milan, Genoa as well as Nice and Monte Carlo but you will need a car to reach the towns and get around. The main city of Turin is well connected by train so you could opt to rent a car in Turin. However, if you are in Milan, I recommend picking up the car in Milan and driving.

Stay: Staying in the hill towns or in select bed & breakfast establishments among the vineyards is probably the most enjoyable way to spend time in Piedmont. I stayed in Palas Cerequio, near La Morra.

Length of stay: Two-three nights but you could spend more time if you plan to visit more wineries or just savour things at a slower pace. My suggested itinerary follows.

Day 1:

• Depart Milan after breakfast. It’s around a one and a half hours drive to Asti and a further 30 minutes to the heart of the Piedmont hills and towns such as La Morra. You could have lunch en route in Asti and spend some time to visit the city or a winery. I visited the Michele Chiarlo winery in Asti but this was arranged through a distributor. I’m not sure if they entertain public visits. I would allocate around two hours for a winery visit as this often includes a tasting along with the winery walk-through.
• Mid-late afternoon, check into Palas Cerequio, relax with a drink and have a short walk around the compound and/or vineyards, time permitting.
• Late afternoon: Wine tasting of the Michele Chiarlo wines in Palas Cerequio – this takes about an hour.
• Dinner in Palas Cerequio

Day 2:

• Early morning walk in the surrounding vineyards
• After breakfast drive to and visit Alba. Spend a couple of hours to walk around the old town centre. There are good lunch spots in Alba include Michelin 3-starred Piazza Duomo.
• After lunch – drive to Barbaresco and then to Barolo. Have a look at the towns. There are some museums in Barolo but some may find them disappointing if you already have a decent knowledge of wines. Or visit a winery in the area if you have this arranged in advance.
• Dinner at a local trattoria or in the hotel. If you had a light lunch, you may want to dine at one of the finer restaurants in the area such as La Ciau del Tornavento. We ate in Palas Cerequio again where we conducted our own tasting of fine Barolos from other producers.

Day 3:

• Early morning walk up the hill to the town of La Morra
• After breakfast drive to and visit Turin. Park as close to the historic centre if possible. Note – instead of going to Turin, you could also opt to spend the full day visiting wineries.
• If in Turin, there are a number of good lunch spots. However, I opted to visit Eataly for a light salad (I went to the branch opposite the Prada store on Via Lagrange). We followed this with hot chocolate (and chocolates also) at Guido Gobino, which was a short walk down the road.
• Return to hotel / dinner at any of the fine establishments in the area. We went to La Ciau del Tornavento on our final night in Piedmont.

Day 4: Return to Milan after breakfast. In my case, we left at sunrise and drove straight to the airport in Milan to catch a late morning flight.

Some Useful Links:

Palas Cerequio website: http://www.palascerequio.it

La Ciau del Tornavento website: http://www.laciaudeltornavento.it/ita

Eataly Lagrange website: http://www.eataly.net/it_en/shops/turin-lagrange

Guido Gobino website: http://guidogobino.it/en/

Piazza Duomo website: http://www.piazzaduomoalba.it/en

Blog on Piedmont with numerous recommendations: http://www.piemontemio.com

For more info on the Langhe area: http://langhe.net/?lang=en