A hundred towers and a little alley: a day in Alba, between history and good food

You arrive in Alba crossing a wonderful hilly landscape, immersed among the vineyards of the Langhe and Roero, and dotted with small villages and castles that seem to have come out of a fairy tale. If instead we had passed through here thousands of years ago, we could have admired the round huts of the Ligurian Statielli, who engaged in hunting and agriculture and created ceramic objects. The advance of history brings us among the evocative medieval atmospheres of Alba's historic centre, famous for its hundred towers, built between the 14th and 15th centuries and used, during the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, also as prisons. The polygonal walls around the city were built in Roman times, then reinforced in the Middle Ages. It was an imposing construction, over two metres high and equipped with buttresses and keep towers.

To enter the city you passed through one of the historic gates arranged according to the four cardinal points, also equipped with one or two towers. Roaming with your nose in the air in search of towers, you can also admire many other monuments, including some stunning churches and in particular the imposing Cathedral, equipped with a very tall bell tower. Over the course of history Alba soon became the hub of flourishing cultural and artistic activities. In the eighteenth century the philharmonic-literary Academy, created by the canon Odella, was of great prestige. Speaking of literature, the writer and partisan Beppe Fenoglio was born here; he recounted the story of the first partisan republic established in Alba in 1944.

The charm of the historic city that has its roots in Roman times extends beyond the walls, also to viticulture, which, in addition to the legendary truffles, makes Alba a paradise for food and wine tourism, and was a flourishing and advanced activity already in the days of Alba Pompeia. It was in the first decades of the twentieth century that the city began to become the destination of many tourists in search of authentic flavours, attracted here by the "Mozart of mushrooms", as Gioacchino Rossini had called the truffle. Since 1929, in the month of October, the White Truffle Fair and the Truffle Bacchanal, a very colourful and mouth-watering historical re-enactment, take place.

But that's not all: those who arrive in Alba on the first Sunday of October can attend the Joust of the Hundred Towers and the very entertaining Palio of the Donkeys, born as a playful taunt towards the rival Asti, famous for its Palio. The desire to immerse ourselves in the atmospheres of times past takes us to piazza Pertinace, where we can admire the remains of a temple of considerable size surrounded by a portico, dating back to the Augustan age (29 BC – 14 BC), which constituted the sacred area of ancient Alba Pompeia. The square is dominated by the mighty tower-house Palazzo Marro, an austere fortified stately residence, built in the Middle Ages on the remains of the walls of the temple's podium.

We stay in this area also as a little hunger sets in, thanks to which we discover a charming little place nestled among the alleys adjoining the temple square: the Osteria del Vicoletto, located in via Bertero. We settle into the characteristic room furnished in a style that combines elegance, tradition and modernity, highlighting the bond with the area's wine-growing culture. Welcoming us with great kindness is the owner and chef Daniele Sandri, alongside his son Matteo in the dining room. Completing the team are Giorgia and Alessandro, who help respectively in the kitchen and in the dining room. "Historically this was one of the old inns of Alba, and before our management, which began two years ago, it had been a shop with a restaurant-deli, and even earlier a Michelin-starred restaurant. Our intention, instead, was to create a modern osteria.

The menu changes often, following the seasonality of the raw ingredients. We offer traditional dishes but presenting them in a modern way, giving a certain importance also to the visual impact," Mr Sandri tells us. The cuisine is characterised by great attention to the freshness of the products, coming almost exclusively from the area, in full harmony with the Slow Food philosophy and following the criteria of zero kilometres. The hallmark is always that of an osteria: few ingredients are used but all of them must be tasted. Besides the traditional Piedmontese specialities, the menu also always features, on rotation, various fish dishes, likewise selected according to the availability of fresh, seasonal produce. We start with exquisite typical starters such as the albese raw meat chopped by knife and the pink-cooked veal with tuna sauce.

We also taste the local asparagus with soft egg and fondue, while our seafood-loving friends enjoy the sautéed squid with farro and vegetables and the steamed salt cod with broccoli and hazelnut cream. We continue with the first courses, prepared with homemade fresh pasta, in particular the flagship of the osteria, the tajarin with 40 yolks made the way grandmother used to make them, left to dry on the big table, cut by knife and kept in the basket without even letting them dry completely. Tossed with sausage ragù they are a real delight. We also don't forgo the traditional agnolotti del plin with roast sauce and the potato gnocchi of the Bisalta with Castelmagno. We wash these delicacies down with excellent Roero wines, chosen from among the more than 560 labels available, which increase even more in winter.

The selection also rewards young wineries, whose labels are offered alongside the more renowned ones. Among the main courses we choose the braised fassone beef with Barolo and the grilled fassone tagliata, but the rabbit with Arneis is also much liked. The seafood souls of the group instead opt for a dish of roast octopus and squid with vegetables, as well as the traditional salt cod creamed Ligurian style. Finally, we let ourselves be tempted by the tasty homemade desserts, including a particularly soft panna cotta with pears in Moscato and a Domori white chocolate mousse, passion fruit and cocoa crumble. The images and flavours of this wonderful territory are now imprinted in our memory and will certainly bring us back here soon, also on the occasion of the next food and wine events in the city: the Truffle Fair in autumn and Vinum, which in 2018 will take place from 21 April to 1 May.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Osteria del Vicoletto Via Bertero, 6 Alba (CN) 0173/363196