Our long weekend away from everything, including our children, has become an experience we don’t want to give up. Here we are, one year later, in another Parents’ Great Escape: a runaway to Langhe, a land of wine, food and culture where Alba shares with our home town, Parma, and Bergamo the recognition as a Unesco Creative City of Gastronomy.

Parents’ Great Escape to Langhe

This time the runaway was organised with our friends Mascia and Francesco, who share the same passion for what we consider “good living”: nature, authentic food and wine and, above all, people who are passionate about their land.

Thanks to the priceless support of Chiara Paglieri of Bottega Manera (which I will tell you about later) and Langhe Experience, our 3 days in the Langhe hills can be a perfect itinerary for everyone who decides to spend a weekend in Piedmont.

We left super early because Alba in Italian means “dawn” and we wanted to be consistent with our destination! So much so that we our mouth-watering gourmet shopping at I frutti della mia Langa  came just at the perfect time. Noemi’s magical hands transform the products of the land into irresistible preserves: Langhe peppers with tuna, anchovy fillets with bagnet verd, rural antipasto, red bagnet of the Langhe, bagna cauda to name but a few of the specialities that contribute to making Piedmontese appetisers rich and fabulous.

Why fish in Piedmontese cuisine

I have always been fascinated by the presence of fish in Piedmontese cuisine because it tells the story of the region. In fact, being along the salt route coming from France and leading to other parts of Italy, Piedmont had become a land of intense clandestine trade of this precious ingredient burdened with heavy customs duties. Thus, in order to hide their goods, smugglers covered the salt barrels with layers of anchovies, a practice that favoured the spread of anchovies themselves and the birth of anchovy traders who offered them door-to-door, giving rise to flourishing businesses.

Moreover, Piedmont’s proximity to the port of Genoa had fuelled the movement of men from the hinterland to the sea where they found work as sailors. They returned home not only with money in their pockets, but also with non-perishable provisions of fish preserved in oil or salt.

Today, it is precisely tuna and anchovies that are the stars of some of the most iconic dishes of the traditional cuisine, which we thoroughly enjoyed in every trattoria and restaurant we visited: vitello tonnato and bagna cauda.

First wine tasting stop, the historical Lodali Winery

In the centre of the village of Treiso, tucked away among the houses, is the historic Lodali Winery, which has been producing Barolo and Barbaresco since 1958. That was before the 1966 Production Specifications laid down the requirements for obtaining the prestigious D.O.P. label.

Lodali WineryWe walked down to the damp marl and tufa soil surrounding the wooden barrels, and returned to the surface for a tasting of 7 wines. They took us on a journey that recounts the colours, aromatic notes and flavours of Chardonnay, Arnais, Dolcetto, Barbera d’Alba, Barbaresco and Barolo, culminating with the Lorens Reserves produced with grapes from the historic vineyards that Walter, the winery’s patron, dedicated to his father Lorenzo.

Fortunately for us, the route to Neive, our lunch destination, is short and our schedule has an “à la carte” lunch at the Cantina del Rondò restaurant: authentic cuisine that gets straight to the heart, without frills or distractions.

The gluten free cuisine is made of extraordinary starters and main courses accompanied by packaged bread substitutes that are not even comparable to the typical breadsticks.  Each course delivers the taste and dedication of the tireless owner who shifts from the kitchen to the entrance hall to gracefully welcome her guests.

A calorie-burning stroll through the sun-kissed village of Neive, swarming with people intent on enjoying wine and food everywhere, is a must.

Alba, the city of truffle and hazelnuts

A stop over in the city of Alba was just what we needed. In autumn weekends the town turns into a Babylon of different languages, music, interesting characters wandering around and whiffs of truffle and sugary hazelnut. We follow this unstoppable flow all the way to the opposite end of town.

Our stop is Bottega Manera, where Chiara Paglieri and Eugenio Manera are constantly involved in their gastronomic research. They welcome us with the bubbling sound of an amazing classic method 100% Pinot Noir named Cugià (Azienda Vitivinicola Merenda Sinoira). Then, they surprise us, we the Parmesans, not only with a 24-month dry-cured Cuneo ham, but also with an expanse of more than 120 types of cheese including alpine pasture cheese smelling like fields of flowers, lavender and anise-scented goat cheese from the local Lo Puy farm. Not to mention the enveloping creaminess of Seirass ricotta and the soft curls of French sweet and demisel butter in a wooden basket.

In short, the 12,000 steps walked, certainly cannot burn off all the goodness that the day has given us, also because the icing on the cake awaits us for dinner at La Piola restaurant. This is a “relative” of the three-star Piazza Duomo restaurant by chef Enrico Crippa, who created it with the support of the Ceretto family to celebrate the excellence of traditional Langa’s cuisine.

Barolo means wine, museums and castles

The second day has a more gentle start as the Barolo Wine Museum opens its doors at 10:30am but, as expected, we also get lost in the narrow streets of the village topped by the castle that houses both the museum and the Enoteca Regionale.

The WiMu, this is the name of the museum – is a real surprise because it has nothing to do with the old format of passive museum visits. The museum tour winds its way through the three floors of the castle, alternating illustrated explanations with full immersion in the music and cinematography of wine, a journey through wine culture from prehistory to the present day with the possibility of tasting and purchasing the precious ruby nectar right there, at the regional wine shop.

The streets of Barolo are so crowded that finding a restaurant table without a reservation is absolutely impossible: this is the experience of some friends who would like to join us, but give up after countless vain attempts. We have a reservation at Locanda La Gemella that welcomes us with an unexpected combination of local ingredients and techniques from the Far East, as well as Sicilian touches proposed by the Japanese chef and sous chef.

An unforgettable experience also for gluten free guests.

The following stop is La Morra, the village with the piazza overlooking the gentle hills lined with rows of grapes as far as the eye can see, and several hot-air balloons silently floating in the sky like flowers in the blue sea of the clear November sky.

One last wine tasting awaits us and once again the cellar is located in the basement hidden behind the façade of a plain and simple house along the village’s main street, named, like so many in the area, Via Umberto I. These are the cellars of Poderi Marcarini, producers of Barolo and the wines bestowed by this land for six generations. The passionate guide who makes out visit extremely enjoyable by sharing the less glamorous, but certainly truer stories of the hard life of the winegrowers.

After deciding to skip dinner, we head to the castle of Serralunga D’Alba to admire a breathtaking sunset from the heights of yet another amazing castle.

Grinzane Cavour: open-air museum

From our school days we all remember something of the life of Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, but the fact that the rebirth of Piedmontese viticulture and oenology is also linked to him was an interesting surprise to me.

This open-air museum ‘In the Vineyard’ winds around the marvellous Castle of Grinzane Cavour and tells its story in an excellent way. Using pictures and diagrams, even very technical information is understandable, and we discover the hard manual work and the changes in the vineyard during the four seasons of the year.

The castle stands on a hill that provides a 360-degree view of the vineyards and is home to the region’s largest wine shop, the Enoteca Regionale Piemontese Cavour, opened in 1967 to promote the knowledge and image of the region’s finest wines and foodstuffs. The Hall of Masks and the Cavour Hall, where relics of the famous statesman are preserved, are worth a visit.

Grinzane is also home to the prestigious Alba International White Truffle Auction held every year at the end of November, attracting enthusiasts from all over the globe.

Before leaving this wonderful land, we treat ourselves to a walk in the vineyard to enjoy the castle in its unspoilt beauty and to an unforgettable dish of white truffle Tagliolini, which I hope to be able to enjoy in a gluten-free version soon.