Day Trip:White Truffle Festivals In Piemonte 2010

Chestnuts, wine, and truffles... Three of the most wonderful things about autumn in Northern Italy. All are in abundance at this time, and all offer many opportunities to enjoy them.

Regarding truffles, I reprint below a post Tim has written on the Slow Travel Italy Forum. Not only does he educate us, but he has printed a very complete calendar of the truffle festivals in Piemonte this 2010 autumn season.

The heart of the Piemonte wine and truffle region is only a bit more than a one-hour, easy drive from Stresa, making this a wonderful day trip activity. Below, Tim's post:

The Piedmontese white truffle, Tartufo Bianco d’Alba (tuber magnatum pico) is synonymous with Alba, thanks to the Alba Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo, first held in 1929, which put Piedmontese white truffles on the modern map for gourmets and connoisseurs of exotic delicacies.

Whereas white truffles can be found in other parts of Italy also Slovenia and Croatia, truffle experts consider the Piedmont truffles to be the finest in both the aroma and texture.

Piedmont’s prized white truffles come from not just the hills around Alba, but also a larger area of central Piedmont roughly enclosed by the Po River to the North and the Bormida & Tanaro Rivers to the south. This zone lies entirely in the Monferrato and Langhe hills, which are famous for Piedmont’s red wines and countless wonderful trattorie and osterie prized by food and wine lovers. The zone is bounded by the cities of Casale Monferrato, Chieri, Mondovi and Acqui Terme, with Alba and Asti in the centre.

Many visitors to Piedmont may not realize is that although the Alba Truffle Fair is the oldest and largest, there are around 40 smaller truffle festivals throughout the zone in the autumn months, many of them incorporating a local harvest festival. The atmosphere and pungency of truffles in these smaller festivals is a real local experience, and except for some of the larger and long-established ones, not touristy at all (and when I say tourists, I mean city-folks from Turin and Milan who head for the “zone” on weekends in droves). The small festivals feature prizes to the local trifalau (probably to encourage them to display their biggest and best truffles), giving you a chance to meet with these normally taciturn truffle hunters.

Its almost autumn in Piedmont and this year promises to be a good year for the prized “Tuber magnatum pico” as we have had a wet and cool August with a balmy September so far.

If you are coming to Piedmont in autumn, here is a list of 2010 Truffle festivals in the provinces of Asti (AT), Cuneo (CN), Alessandria (AL).

Festivals* starred are major Truffle Fairs (Fiere Nazionali) or Giornata del Tartufo, which indicate a big local festival day in which truffles are part of the whole event.

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If, however, you are going to stay in truffle territory rather than in Stresa, take a look at Tim's lovely B&B, Villa Sampaguita, just outside of Asti.