Autumn with taste

Alba you have to expect

[Tripper: Paola]

IT

The most awaited moment of the year for fans of the sector is about to arrive. The usual International White Truffle Fair will take place in Alba from 8 October to 4 December, a moment of celebration and taste for the whole city but also a perfect opportunity to get to know the area.
Alba has made a fortune out of its gastronomic excellence; from all over the world come here to win the precious underground mushroom, capable of intensely scenting dishes designed by great chefs.

The towers of Alba

Tagliatelle with white truffle

The fair is a market but also cooking shows led by renowned chefs, sensory analysis of the truffle to learn how to choose it, appreciating its organoleptic characteristics.
Alba, however, is not only truffles because precious hazelnuts are also born here, wines with important labels are produced, cheeses with a strong flavor, like the character of this land.
It is also Nutella, most will say, and it is certainly true, because in the city is the headquarters of Ferrero, the company that, since the forties, has made the world sweeter with its products and also with its always attentive gaze towards the community.
But still not enough to describe it in its entirety.
Alba is history.
Two thousand years of alternation built layer by layer, one on top of the other: the Roman Alba was built over the pre-existing village, drawing the cardo and the decumanus, aqueducts, sewers, walls and turrets. The medieval city recovered materials from destroyed Roman buildings and transformed the urban context into the city of a hundred towers, a symbol of power of the local lords, of which few examples remain today. Today's city rests on all the past ones: it is enough to immerse oneself in the underground bowels to find traces of them. There are underground routes that touch different stages depending on the day of visit, itineraries designed to emphasize the invisible heritage that they guard.
Alba is also literature and art.
Strolling through the streets starting from Piazza Rossetti 2, next to the Duomo, you can follow in the footsteps of the partisan writer Beppe Fenoglio, originally from Alba, whose marks the centenary of his birth.
But not only Fenoglio has cast his gaze on these hills and imbued his art with their suggestion: the painter Macrino, the musician Abbado, the writer Cesare Pavese.
Tastes and perfumes, historical tales, artistic traits, Alba knows how to gratify any expectation: do not miss the opportunity to visit it.
Have a good trip!