A lion on the road to the sea: A journey to Tortona

Setting off for the sea from the big city is always in some way a small adventure. It becomes even more so if halfway, when we have just left the Po Valley behind us and in the distance the first hills of the Alessandria area begin to appear, suddenly a lion pops up... A silver lion, on a fire-red background, holding between its paws a silver leafy and flowering rose, and whose strength, as tradition has it, are three gifts: valour, loyalty and courtesy. It is the famous lion of Tortona, a city once called Derthona, whose motto, since Roman times, has been: "Pro tribus donis simil Terdona leonis", that is, Tortona is like a lion, by virtue of three gifts.

In reality the gifts, if you decide to leave the motorway at the Tortona toll booth and treat yourself, as we did, to a lovely day in this city, can be decidedly more than three, given the artistic, but also scenic and food-and-wine richness of Tortona. The city of the lion is in a strategic geographical position, a fact that over the centuries has been partly its cross, and partly its fortune. A crossroads of trade, a flourishing agricultural centre already in Roman times, today close to the main metropolises of the North, during history Tortona was also fiercely contested by various powers. Our walk in the centre begins at the Duomo, built in the second half of the 16th century on a pre-existing church.

Inside we admired, as well as paintings by 16th- and 17th-century artists such as Aurelio Luini and Camillo Procaccini, also the relics of San Marziano, the saint to whom, according to tradition, the conversion of the city to Christianity is due. The characteristic streets of Tortona, which at times recall those of Ligurian historic centres, wind between curves and gentle climbs among houses with flowering balconies, the walls of ancient churches and the windows of graceful shops. In front of the Oratorio di San Rocco we meet a group of students on a school trip who, like us, take photos of the facade of the religious building. Continuing, we reach the Church of Santa Maria Canale, the oldest in the city, it dates in fact to the 11th-12th century.

Inside there are Renaissance frescoes, as well as interesting paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, including a Nativity of the Leonardo school. Painting has always accompanied the history of Tortona, in fact the city was the birthplace of more than one important painter, including Angelo Barabino, a pupil and friend of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, and Cesare Saccaggi. And the tradition continues, to the point that artistic brushstrokes accompany us even at the table: as soon as we enter the Ristorante Infernot, a genuine wine cellar with a kitchen on via Pelizzari, a stone's throw from the Duomo, our gaze is captured by a painting that seems to evoke the atmospheres of Caravaggio's works: it is a work by the Tortona painter Claudio Magrassi, depicting people at the table, including the owners, Mr Angelo and Mrs Paola.

We sit down at the characteristic wooden tables inside a room with very ancient walls, and the special atmosphere immediately makes us feel like characters in a work of art. "Via Pelizzari was once a street of blacksmiths, in fact, even in our place there is a very high door, today a blind door, through which horses presumably passed, and you can also see where the forge and the brazier for heating the iron could have been", Mr Angelo tells us. We immediately ask him whether there is anything to worry about in the fact that we are "at the Infernot", but we are immediately reassured: the only "diabolical" thing that can happen here is committing some harmless sin of gluttony, eating and drinking particularly well. In fact, the word "Infernot" refers to underground rooms where vintage wine was kept at the time.

So we enthusiastically decide to give in to the temptations of the authentic cooking of the area, halfway between Piedmontese and Ligurian. We start with appetisers based on local cured meats, and we also taste the peperoni bruschi with anchovies. We continue with the typical Piedmontese rabatòn, as well as old-fashioned ravioli. As a main course, we choose a good braised beef, while our friends take advantage of the season to taste polenta with white and black truffles. We wash it all down with excellent wines from the Colli tortonesi, such as Timorasso and Barbera, and to finish sweetly, we took the bunet, a typical dessert of the area, and pears cooked in wine, caramelised. Next time we will come back here on a Friday, for an authentic fish dinner, based on stockfish, salt cod and fried anchovies.

As we take the motorway back to our city, we think affectionately of the lion of Tortona: it was truly generous with us.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Infernot – Wine cellar with kitchen Via Pelizzari, 9 Tortona (AL) 0131/894329