A day out near Turin at Radio Ambassador One: a trip to Orbassano

Arriving in the territory of Orbassano, we would have found farmland already cultivated in Roman times, and from the 12th century we could have taken a walk in the Piazza del Borgo and visited the little castle. Today, the extremely colourful paintings by Angelo Cerani, present in many corners of the town, help us retrace the centuries of history. It is thanks to this illustrated historical itinerary that we discover the painful events of the War of Orbassano of 1693, which ended with the defeat of Victor Amadeus II by Louis XIV. But the drawings also take us around aboard the steam railway that from 1881 connected Orbassano to Turin. In the centre we admire the beautiful church of San Giovanni Battista, rebuilt in 1986, and the ancient church of the Confraternita dello Spirito Santo.

We move to the very nearby park of the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, built in 1729 by Filippo Juvarra, where from 1827 an elephant also lived. It is right there nearby, in the hamlet of Tetti Valfre, that another journey awaits us, this time into the most authentic Abruzzese and Sardinian food and wine traditions. We settle into the characteristic room of the Trattoria Pizzeria Ambassador, and soon discover we have arrived in a place full of history, and not only because Giuseppe Garibaldi once stayed there. "This was once a stable, the old farmhouse of the mayor, which I restored myself," the owner, Mr Pietro Mancini, known to everyone as Pietro Il Baffo, tells us. He is a well-known figure in Turin since the golden age of free radio: in 1977 it was he who founded Radio Ambassador One.

But the story of Pietro Il Baffo's life begins much earlier: "I was born on 24 June 1951 in Lanciano, but my town is Fossacesia, in the province of Chieti. My family was very large and so in 1966 I decided to emigrate to seek my fortune in the North. I arrived in Milan, but the fog and gloom of the city made me flee to Genoa after nine months. I worked at the Bar Ligure in Pontedecimo as a machine operator, barman and assistant cook. There were several refineries in the area and the air stank of oil, so I decided to move again. I arrived in Turin on 1 November 1968. I lived at strada Cartman 12, at Nicola's, my half-brother on my father's side, the eldest of the family, whom I thank for the hospitality. I started working at Fiat, but after eight months I preferred to leave: working every day in that tunnel full of smoke was oppressive.

I did my military service and in 1971 I returned to Turin. The same year I married Antonietta, my beloved wife. I became one of the first security guards of Mondialpol, and I worked with the Calleri brothers, the owners. It was a colleague of mine from Mondialpol, Ezio Segatori, who introduced me to a large Turin jeweller's. The owner, when he saw me, said: "I trust you. Would you like to be a bodyguard for my son?" I gladly accepted and that job lasted twelve years. Today the jeweller's is based not only in Turin, but also in Paris and Monte Carlo." But the great turning point in Pietro Il Baffo's life comes in 1977. "That year I opened Radio Ambassador One, one of the very first free radio stations. We dealt with various topics, from cultural gatherings to ecological walks, from extemporaneous painting to dance evenings.

It is from that period that everyone began to call me Pietro Il Baffo of Radio Ambassador One," he tells us. The radio was his life for thirty years, and it is thanks to it that the trattoria where we are was born. "In fact, also in 1977 I opened a club right in this place, where the radio's listeners could meet. Meanwhile I was already cooking as a hobby, but from that moment I started doing it seriously, bringing to the table the traditional Abruzzese dishes as my mother prepared them." So we come to the present day and to the menu that contains an endless number of Abruzzese specialities, but also Sardinian ones, since Mrs Antonietta came from Sardinia. "My wife worked with me from 1977 until 2010, the year she passed away leaving an unfillable void." Today Mr Pietro runs the place together with his children Barbara and Marco.

Our dinner in the spirit of the flavours of the past ranges from the true Abruzzese fish brodetto to the original porchetta as it was made fifty years ago, not boiled, to the arrosticini and a good Abruzzese "chitarra" pasta. At the trattoria you can also taste any type of game, besides the classic Abruzzese broth with cardoon and meatballs, and the sagnette with beans. We wash down these delicacies with Montepulciano and Trebbiano, both strictly from Fossacesia. After this lovely day we are even more convinced of the fact that often, to find places that stay in your heart, you do not need to go so far away.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Trattoria Pizzeria Ambassador Fraz. Tetti Valfre Orbassano (TO) Tel.: 011/9034926 Facebook: Pietro Il Baffo