The Carriage That Travels Through History: A Day in Asti

“Via, via, vieni via con me”, sings Paolo Conte, and this time we took the words of the famous song literally, coming to visit Asti, the birthplace of the great singer-songwriter. Known in ancient times as the city of a hundred towers, Asti, a free commune in the Middle Ages, was always an important artistic, commercial and also banking centre, thanks to the so-called casane, the banks that carried out currency exchange and pawn lending activities. Famous for its wines, including Asti Spumante, the city hosts an important wine competition every year, the Douja D'Or. On the occasion of the very ancient Palio, which takes place in September, the medieval tradition of the city is relived. We begin our walk from the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in typical red brick on a previous basilica, and which inside preserves the works of important painters and sculptors from Asti.

In 1535, however, in the Collegiate Church of San Secondo, there was a Eucharistic miracle: when the consecrated host was broken during mass, drops of blood are said to have dripped into the chalice and onto the paten. Asti was also the birthplace of one of the most important intellectuals of the 18th century: the poet and playwright Vittorio Alfieri, to whom a square in the city is now dedicated. When we arrive at the medieval Palazzo Catena, we meet a lady who tells us a mysterious story: this palace is said to still be inhabited by the ghost of Iginia d'Asti, protagonist of a tragedy by Silvio Pellico. If this were true, Iginia would be in good company, because legend has it that another female spirit also wanders in the centre, that of the restless countess Adelaide, a descendant of Arduino d'Ivrea, king of Italy in the tenth century.

If here history is breathed at every corner, the same goes for the restaurant where we stop to taste the specialities of the area: La Carrozza, five minutes from the centre, in the frazione of Serravalle. Entering it feels as if we have landed at a 1950s railway station. As soon as we exchange a few words with the owner Gian Luca, who has run the restaurant together with his sister Ilaria since 2008, we discover why: “The restaurant is made from the premises of the Serravalle d'Asti railway station which had been disused for twenty years. We kept the original identity of the rooms, so today as then there is the Waiting Room, the Trains Room, and also the Carriage Room, created outside the building, reconstructing the interior of an old carriage from the early 1950s”.

We settle right there, and like travellers through the history of Asti, we begin our dinner with a rich appetiser in full Piedmontese style: raw Fassone beef chopped with a knife, vitello tonnato “old style”, that is baked and dressed with tuna cream without mayonnaise, prawn tails sautéed in Brandy on Venere black rice scented with poppy seeds, pepper flan on anchovy cream and Piedmontese rabbit tuna cooked in the oven, under a layer of oil and aromas. We continue with homemade tagliolini with rabbit ragù, hand-made gnocchetti rolled with a fork with Moncenisio Blu and walnuts, and the agnolotti gobbi, also produced in-house, with roast sauce. Some of us instead opt for Carnaroli rice creamed with old Barbera d'Asti with sausage and radicchio and for polenta with sausage.

After these exquisite first courses we reach the highlight of our dinner, tasting the excellent grilled meats of the brasserie. The owner explains that for grilling, Piedmontese meats are too lean, so the best foreign meats are carefully selected for each type of preparation. We decide to taste as many varieties as possible, including the grilled fiorentina made with Irish scottone rib, the grilled rib, the sliced fresh Iberian pork loin, as well as the old Galician cow, a meat of intense red colour, very tasty and tender. Some of our friends choose a very generous portion of mixed grilled meat, the sliced Bavarian rump on a bed of salad and Grana Padano shavings and the grilled lamb scamoncino. We wash it all down with excellent local wines, chosen from over a hundred available labels, including wines in half bottles.

We end this Lucullan dinner with the “dolci momenti”: pineapple sorbet, hazelnut semifreddo, a delicate rum and amaretti cream, a fondant tartlet with a warm heart, baked to order. The greediest among us give in to the temptation of the “palette”, made of nine compartments on the plate, with four tastings of different desserts. After such a pleasant day, whoever asks us what Asti is like, we will always answer with Paolo Conte: “It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful”.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante La Carrozza Frazione Serravalle, 4 Asti (AT) Tel.: 0141/294802