Most visitors to northern Italy stop at Milan. This journey goes a little further, to Piedmont, a region far less visited by Americans than Tuscany or Venice, and one of Italy’s best at the table. It is the home of vermouth, gianduja chocolate, bicerin, and the white truffles of Alba. The Slow Food movement was born here, in the town of Bra, and the region still lives by its idea: good food, made by people who care, eaten without hurry.
We begin in Milan, where I take you past the headline sights to the quiet ones, then continue by train to Turin, an elegant, arcaded city that is easy to love and still easy to have almost to yourself. Along the way, we taste, cook and wander, with a day in the hills around Alba as the season for truffles begins. Nine nights, one room of your own, and a pace that leaves room to look around.
