Piemonte on the Brain

It seems that everywhere I turn there’s an event, an article, a conversation involving the Piedmont region of Italy. Even before I attended the Winter Olympics in Turin, Piedmont had one a special place in my heart. I can liken it to Tuscany before it was discovered; and the wine and food in Piedmont (especially those awesome white truffles) give Toscana a run for its money.

Last night I attended a reception at Washington, D.C.’s Galileo (Chef Roberto Donna is a native of Piedmont and I had the pleasure of taking a culinary tour with him in February) in honor of the Alba Music Festival.

This summer series of free daily concerts is a partnership between the city of Alba and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Information on the Web is scarce but the dates for the 2007 festival are May 24 to June 3. Definitely an additional reason to put Alba on your itinerary.

Piedmont is also featured in the current issue of Travel + Leisure. Brothers Matt and Ted Lee do a nice job exploring the region. One place they write about is Marchesi Alfieri (a vineyard I wrote about a year ago; I love when I beat the big magazines.) I started laughing when I realized that the estate’s precocious Wire Fox Terriers, named Fox and Fax, inserted themselves into many of the T+L photos. I myself am “owned” by a Fox Terrier and know how they like to ham it up.

One of the thrills of visiting Marchesi Alfieri was meeing these pups. Unfortunately, the locals aren’t as crazy as about them as I am as they have been terrorizing the local cats. I guess you can get away with that when you belong to a real life royal. The sisters who own the vineyard are related to European royalty, yet very down to earth. The T+L photos aren’t online but I will post one from my visit.

And finally on the topic of Piedmont – Dream of Italy will have a booth at Washington, D.C.’s Festa Italiana on Sunday, September 24. This year’s theme is, you guessed it, Piemonte! Come on out and see us!