What are the best experiences in this paradise for foodies? Every traveler is sure to discover those special trattorias, little-known food festivals and extraordinary local products that memories are made of, but there are a few top places to look in Northern Italy.
White Truffles in Alba
Sample the products of the Piemonte’s fabled hillsides at the White Truffle Festival in Alba, held in November when the fabled “white gold”- Alba white truffles- are in season. Or join a truffle hunter and his dog in the brisk autumn air of the Langhe Hills to hunt them yourself.
Wine Trails in Valpolicella
Each region has its wine trail, but north of Verona is the Valpolicella region, where travelers can visit distinguished wineries, often in historic villas with gardens. The chef at the magnificent Villa da Quar, a distinguished palazzo in Valpolicella, designs menus that show off the region’s fine wines. To the east, just north of Venice, are the vineyards that produce Prosecco and to the west are the less well-known wineries of the Franciacorta.
Find a Festival
Food and wine festivals offer a perfect way to try local specialties and meet their producers. Along with the product or harvest that’s featured, festivals often include markets with other local food products for sale and to sample. These may include local cheese makers, olive presses, wineries, bakeries and confectioners. Watch for festival posters and signs while traveling, and be sure to ask at local tourist offices. In Sulzano, for example, October brings a festival celebrating the local wild boar, now raised commercially. Tents are set up along the shore of Lake Iseo (between Lake Garda and Lake Como) and hearty dinners of wild boar dishes and polenta are served at long tables where visitors and locals eat side by side.
Head West to the Piemonte
All of Italy is filled with food adventures, but nowhere are they packed more closely than in the Piemonte, in northwest Italy around Turin. Home of the exceptional Barolo and Barberra wines, hazelnuts, Nutella and Turin‘s famous coffee-house drink, the Bicerin, The Piemonte region is also the headquarters of the Slow Food movement. No foodie trip to Italy would be complete without visiting these rugged little vine-clad hills.
Stay in an Agriturismo
Look for lodging and meals at a guest house on a farm where they raise much of the produce and even meat they serve. While these are not usually as widely advertised as hotels, they are easily found on the web, and local tourist offices have lists of them. For dedicated foodies, the little hometown festivals celebrating the local harvest or product are the most fun, and offer the best chance to “get inside” the culinary heritage of a region.
Barbara Rogers - Traveler, writer and guidebook author with a passion for those lands that border the Mediterranean Sea and the neighboring Atlantic ...
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