http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/travel/truffles-and-barolo-in-piedmont-the-frugal-way.html 2014-12-02 20:26:49 Truffles and Barolo in Piedmont, the Frugal Way A trip to the source, in northwest Italy, can turn the pricey specialties into affordable treats. === White truffles from Alba and red wine from Barolo are not usually part of the frugal traveler’s diet. After all, shavings of the former or a bottle of the latter can each easily cost over $100 in a New York restaurant. But what if you go straight to the source, the heart of the Piedmont region in northwestern Italy, for these indulgent luxuries? As I discovered during a recent weekend in the area, it’s possible to sample these superlative specialties — as well as excellent art, food and other charms — on a frugal budget. On a sunny Friday afternoon in early November, my husband, Dave, and I arrived in Alba after a two-and-a-half hour drive from our home in Liguria. (From Milan, Alba is an hour and a half by car.) The charming town is perhaps best known as the site of the long-running Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d’Alba, or Our apartment’s owner had declared By then we had built back up our appetites — and had a plan for how to sate them while staying on a budget: the apericena, an Italian portmanteau describing the trend of turning the complimentary snacks accompanying aperitivi into a full cena (dinner). At We started the next morning amid the dizzyingly pungent aroma of truffles at the fair’s main site, a large covered market hall filled with vendors showcasing specialties of the region — cheeses, salumi, wines, hazelnut cakes, snails, fresh pastas and, of course, white truffles. For a 2.50-euro entrance fee, you can happily occupy yourself with unlimited free samples of food and wine. But a finer pleasure is bantering with the truffle sellers — many trifulau (truffle hunters) themselves — who proudly proffer their knobby wares to hold and smell. One truffle I sniffed was the size of my fist and weighed 166 grams — and cost a whopping 435 euros. But this year’s wet summer yielded an unusually abundant harvest, so there were also bargains to be found: 20 euros for a 14-gram truffle that would generously serve two was a deal too good to pass up. Before leaving the market, we also bought some picnic supplies: a thick baton of truffle-infused, wild boar salami (10 euros) and a hunk of truffle-laced cheese (8.62 euros). We augmented those purchases with a baguette from a panetteria (97 cents) and some veal meatballs (3.90 euros) from a deli before packing up the car and departing Alba for the countryside. It was time to devote our olfactories to some fine wine. The Barolo wine region is a picturesque area southwest of Alba with vineyard-lined slopes and handsome hilltop villages crowned with medieval castles and towers. More compact than, say, the expansive rolling hills of Chianti in Tuscany, the area is easily explored with limited time; the drive from one hilltop village to the next rarely takes more than 15 minutes. Our first stop was the Afterward, we sought out Most villages in the area have a community wine cellar called a cantina comunale where you can sample and buy local wines. In La Morra, the cantina was hosting a special Barolo tasting event, but the 10-euro entry fee was beyond our budget, especially with more free tastings on the itinerary. So instead we marveled at the stunning (and free) views from the hilltop village’s stone tower, where the panorama spanned the Barolo hills and the snow-covered Alps. We continued on to Serralunga d’Alba, another tiny village; we skipped the 5-euro tour of its lovely 14th-century castle and simply admired it from outside. Just down the road was Afterward he pointed out the different vineyards on the hillside below where grapes for each of the Barolos were harvested. There was no charge for the visit, but it would have been poor form to leave without buying something – an unspoken rule when visiting small producers in the region. Fortunately, we’d fallen in love with his 2010 Barolo Marenca and jumped at the opportunity to buy this coveted wine at the below-retail price of 37 euros. For dinner, we went to Vinoteca Centro Storico, a wine bar and restaurant in town where many of the simple dishes on the menu – carne cruda, paccheri with tomatoes and pecorino – cost less than 10 euros each. But even with a cheap food bill, I didn’t have the budget for a bottle of Barolo. Instead I heeded the advice of Eric Asimov, the New York Times wine critic, who had suggested that I look for inexpensive dolcettos and barberas. So I scanned the thick wine list until I hit upon a small producer he’d recommended; Bartolo Mascarello’s barbera d’Alba was juicy and balanced with subtle flavors of red fruits and violets.­ That night, we stayed at Il Girasole, a small inn in the hamlet of Castiglione Falletto. Our comfortable double room with sweeping views over the valley to La Morra cost 60 euros, which included a fantastic breakfast buffet of muesli, yogurt, cheese, prosciutto, soft rolls, chocolate cake and warm marmalade-filled cornetti. After a Sunday morning stroll through the sleepy village, we drove to the town of Barolo, the most touristy of the places we visited. At In our kitchen that evening, Dave uncorked a bottle that I’d purchased at Il Bacco: a barbera d’Alba from G.D. Vajra, another small producer that Eric Asimov had recommended. It wasn’t Barolo, but it was delicious to drink while preparing dinner: thin, ribbonlike egg pasta called tajarin that we buttered and topped with generous shavings of our white truffle. Surrounded by the wonderful aroma of truffles, we sat down to an indulgent meal that, before exploring Piedmont, this frugal traveler never imagined she could afford.