TorreBarolo Blog

If you aren’t familiar with the events surrounding the annual International White Truffle fair in Alba, this is a great video that captures the mood and spirit of it. The images in the video are mainly from the opening weekend celebration when the city hosts various events with participants in medieval dress. One particularly entertaining event in the opening weekend is Alba’s Donkey Palio.

This is Alba making fun of its rival city Asti and its Palio (on bare horse back). Other events that weekend involve numerous wine and food tastings. If you want to make plans for a visit, this is a great time to experience the Langhe.  Although the truffle fair goes on for a whole month, many of the events highlighted in this video take place the first weekend of October.

Ciao! Welcome to my Blog.

I love the Langhe Valley and wanted to create a means to communicate my excitement about the many things that make up this little jewel tucked away in the Northwest of Italy.

You might wonder how an American, originally from California, came to become a Langhe enthusiast. I credit my dad, Harvey, with exposing me to the area. My dad loved food and he was convinced he was Italian in his previous life. Luckily for me, this resulted in lots of trips to mainly Tuscany and Liguria to eat and visit the Italian friends he collected over the years. Of the three children in our family, I most certainly was the one that embraced his passion for food, so we made a good du0.

What I remember most about my first visit to the Langhe Valley in the winter of 1998 was how different the food was from Tuscany and Liguria. The Langhe dishes were lighter and pasta seemed to melt in my mouth. It was exciting to experience a new Italian regional cooking that was more refined, simpler and distinctive than what I knew to be Italian cooking.

The exclusive use of locally sourced produce and livestock ensure a consistent menu of local delicacies at the highest standard……..and that is just the food. For all you wine lovers, you will already know that during the late 90’s, the wine makers in the region were producing some outstanding vintages to accompany the earthly flavours of the regional cooking.

That trip in 1998 was one of four that I shared with my dad before he died in 2000. The summer after his death, as a family we travelled to his favourite places in Europe, including the Langhe, to scatter a portion of his ashes. Since that summer, each year I returned to the Langhe and I was overwhelmed by a sense of “being home”.

In 2005 I bought TorreBarolo, a17^th century tower in the center of Barolo. No matter how many times I stay there, no matter what the season, I am always overwhelmed by the natural beauty on the Langhe. This combined with my love of the regional cooking and wine has turned me into a qualified Langhe nut, such that a blog on all the wonderful events, food, wines, attractions in the Langhe and beyond just made sense. I hope you find the information useful in planning your stay.

Megan