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By Barbara Penny Angelakis and Manos Angelakis.
Piemonte & Torino
Let us have wine and women
mirth and laughter,
sermons and soda water the day after.
LORD BYRON
Piedmont (or Piemonte, in Italian) is one of Italy’s best kept secrets.
Everyone wants to visit Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa or Verona. We can thank Shakespeare, Hemmingway, Sofia Loren and Perry Como for that. But how many tourists have heard of or wish to visit Torino (Turin), the capital of Piemonte? With the exception of the famous shroud that might or might not be Jesus’ burial cloth and the FIAT factory, there was up to now very little reason for a traveler to spend time there.
 It is their loss because Piedmont has many pleasures to offer. And now that the 2006 Winter Olympics are going to be hosted in and around Torino, it is time for the world to discover this long-hidden gem. The Olympics are expected to bring millions of winter sports fans in and millions more will be watching on television. Right now, the entire city is a very, very large construction site with almost every major public building covered with scaffolding. But contrary to other host cities, Torino is renovating magnificent historic buildings and older facilities instead of knocking them down and building new steel and glass monstrosities. Bravo to the organizers and the local government.
First, let’s talk about a little geography and history. Piedmont is in the northwest area of Italy and covers the Italian (eastern, sunny) side of the Alps, while France and Switzerland share the western (shady) side. The Po River is its major waterway; the villagers of the Po Valley were immortalized by Giovanni Guareschi in a series of hilarious stories involving the struggles and odd friendship between a Catholic village priest, Don Camillo, and his nemesis, the Communist Mayor Peppone. The stories eventually became an extremely successful television series in the ‘60s and if you wish to understand the Piemontese, look for “The Little World of Don Camillo” the first in a series of collections of these stories; it is still in print.
Torino was Italy’s first capital and the seat of power of the House of Savoy, the royal Italian family until WWII. Magnificent House of Savoy residences, hunting lodges and castles dot the landscape in and around Torino. After the war, the city became a major manufacturing and business center with most of the major Italian automotive manufacturers being located here including Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and of course the largest, FIAT, which stands for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino.
 In mid-March, Manos and I were invited to visit the Piedmont area to sample their famous cuisine and world class wines. It was with great anticipation that we accepted this invitation from the Regione Piemonte, Direzione Comunicazione Istituzionale della Giunta Regionale, as we have long admired the wines of Piedmont and were anxious to experience their unique cuisine up close and personal. The vivacious and charming Pamela Johnston, president of PJ INC. (www.pjinc.net) Piedmont’s NYC based public relations firm, along with the Regione Piemonte’s Lucia Coppo and our knowledgeable interpreter/guide Carol Bazzani(casamos@libero.it) set a hectic but compelling schedule for us and the other journalists that we joined in Turin; the Boston Herald’s travel editor Fran Golden, Travel Weekly’s Ken Kiesnoski and John DiScala of JohnnyJet.com completed our little group.
 Turin or as the Italians call it Torino, is not at first sight as pretty a town as I had imagined it would be, given its proximity to the imposing Alps and its long history as the fabulously wealthy seat of the House of Savoy. However, hidden amongst the massive nondescript edifices of downtown Torino are majestic buildings, some that contain world class museums, and in many cases are works of art in themselves. Torino has maintained its distance from the tourist onslaught that most of the rest of Italy’s ancient cities have embraced and is now in a state of transition, opening its doors simultaneously to greet the 21st century and the world. The region is refurbishing and restoring stately buildings that have languished for decades. For instance, the 17th century La Venaria Reale, the huge Baroque “Hunting Lodge” complex of the Savoy dynasty that was built to rival the Palace of Versailles is, I believe, the largest restoration project being undertaken in all of Europe. It will not be completely restored by 2006, but the Olympic opening festivities will take place in its massive gallery and one of the wings will serve as offices for the Olympic Committee. The old stables will be housing an art and antiques restoration school,  part of the University of Torino, whose faculty and students will be entrusted with the restoration and preservation of Piedmont’s patrimony.
Torino, like many ancient cities, is integrating the old with the new, in cuisine; in architecture; in design and with a juxtaposition of style and materials melding 17th century brick arches with open elevator shafts housing silent glass elevators. Such a building is the unmistakable Mole Antonelliana with its majestic spire rising above the city below. Originally built to be a synagogue in 1863 by Alessandro Antonelli, it was never consecrated by the  Jewish community and was eventually taken over by the municipality and completed in 1889. The interior has recently been completely refurbished by architect François Confino to house the unique Museo Nazionale Del Cinema. A glass elevator whisks you to the top observation platform in 56 seconds for a breathtaking 360 degree view of the city and its surrounding mountains. But for a truly mind blowing experience, take the time to go through the museum with its 21st century special effects. In an informative and fun way not only does this museum explore the history of the moving image, it does so by creating vignettes and environmental areas that involve the viewer in the films they are viewing.
Another example of artistic diversity is the Castello Di Rivoli, another Baroque Savoy palatial residence on the hills overlooking  the city and current home of the Galleria d‘Arte Moderna e Contemporanea or GAM. This restored building explores contemporary installation art in a sublime setting with an incomparable view, and is also home to the extraordinary restaurant Combal.Zero, the  love child of master chef Davide Scabin. (For a review see Restaurants in this issue). If you decide to explore this restaurant’s unusual offerings, take along your sense of adventure and your wallet, for culinary game playing can get expensive.
In contrast to Mr. Scabin’s approach to cuisine is that of master chef Marina Ramasso at her charming hilltop restaurant Osteria del Paluch. (For a review also see Restaurants in this issue).
 A little known fact is that Torino houses the second most important collection of Egyptian antiquities, the first of course being the Museum in Cairo, Egypt. We visited the Egyptian Museum, which is located in the center of Turin, within walking distance of the Grand Hotel Sitea, (the first hotel we lodged in during our Piemonte sojourn); the collection is simply stupendous, though the physical plant is a bit rundown. Hopefully, this building will also be soon restored.
Due to the current unfortunate exchange rate between the dollar and the euro we were somewhat limited in our ability, but not in our desire, to take advantage of the high style Italian goods offered in Torino. There are literally miles of shops offering all levels of name brands and willing and helpful multi-lingual sales people  to assist in size conversions. Of course a visit to Torino would be incomplete without a stop at a chocolate store for candy to eat on the spot or to take home, or a patisserie for glorious pastries, or a pot of hot chocolate for a pick-me-up. The locals have "una passione per il caffé e la cioccolata". Being a chocoholic I was thrilled to meet with Antonio Peyrano, the latest in a long line of Peyrano chocolatiers, who took us on a tour of the Peyrano manufacturing facility located behind one of their Torino stores, at Corso Moncalieri 47. The making of fine chocolates is a serious art and one the Peyrano family has developed over the years (www.peyrano.com).
And from the sublime to the even more sublime, we visited the Romagnolo brothers farm to engage in a little  truffle hunt. The area around Alba, just some 45 minutes from Torino, is famous for its fine white truffles. Although we were out of season for the white truffle (season is September to January), we made a valiant effort. With the Trifulau (the truffle hunters) and their dogs we set out and were rewarded with finding the less fragrant but still quite pungent winter black truffle (season January to April). Afterwards, we were offered a  small repast of air-cured salami, excellent white goat’s cheese drizzled with truffle-infused olive oil and covered with shavings of black truffles, and freshly baked bread and grissini, all to be chased by tumblers of excellent local red wine. It was a fun experience not to be missed.
 The towns in the foothills of the Alps surrounding Torino are lovely and well worth a visit for wine tasting or for a meal; in fact many of them have Michelin-starred restaurants. There are numerous wineries - practically everyone has a small vineyard near or on their farms to make wine for the family; whatever is not used is sold to the local cooperative. There is also a number of boutique and larger wineries that export their wines around the world. During our visit we stopped at the Gagliardo Winery, located at S. Maria - Serra dei Turchi - La  Mora, for a visit of the cellars, lunch and a taste of their outstanding wines, and the same afternoon we also visited the Marchesi di Barolo cellars in Barolo where I purchased Bracetto d’Acqui, one of the wines they produce that is not available in the US. Three days later we had a small vertical tasting of their flagship wine “Barolo Cannubi” at a friend’s home in Torino (see The Oeno File section).
 At the Osteria del Paluch, they served an exquisite 2000 Gattinara Reserva from the vineyard of the late Giancarlo Travaglini, now managed by Cristina and Cinzia, his daughters. I wish we had the time to visit the Travaglini winery.
Alba is especially charming. In medieval times there was hundreds of towers built as a sort of poor mans fortress for people during times of attack. There are only about 20 left but they still give the city a unique skyline.
During our stay in Torino, we stayed in two hotels; the superbly situated, 4-star rated but with service of a 5-star property, Grand Hotel Sitea, and the 5-star Le Meridien Lingotto Art+Tech.
There were numerous restaurants that we tried both in town and outside. For a quick description of a few of them please see Restaurant Notes. During our entire stay in  Torino, we did not have a bad meal whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner; except for one instance where the food looked very good but had little taste. Even at the little whole-in-the-wall bar with a half-dozen tables in the back room where we stopped for lunch one day while waiting for the Shroud Museum to open up from siesta; we had fresh deep-fried bait-fish (smelts) that smelled of the sea, and a side dish of sautéed dandelions, broccoli-rabe and garlic cloves, bathed in extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice that reminded us of a Greek taverna. Everyone understood the few words from our very limited Italian repertory, caffé espresso and vino. Pointing for the rest, it made for a tasty lunch indeed.
© May 2005. All rights reserved.
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