Neive, Alba, Bra, Turin

Thursday, May 19, 2016

This morning, we pulled up stakes in Parma, and headed for Turin, our base for three nights.  Overnight rain in Parma quickly became a downpour whose intensity was sometimes blinding, that persisted until we reached Asti on the autostrada.  Though it made for tough driving, we were warm and dry as we traveled; like magic, we began to see patches of blue sky just when we needed it.

From Asti (of wine fame), we were headed to Neive, yet another of Italy's "most beautiful" villages.  We parked in Neive's tiny central piazza, where the town hall has an enoteca (wine shop) in the basement featuring the area's pride and joy. As we were enjoying the view over the town and surrounding countryside from a small belvedere, we began to smell sugar in the air; just below us, class was in session at the regional pastry school.  The chatter of the students made it clear that learning by doing is fun -- especially when butter and sugar are involved!  The local clock tower, fortifications, palazzi, narrow streets, and churches were lovely, but not surprising, until we peeked into the church of St. Michael the Archangel.  While the information we'd read in Neive's guides to important local sites had historical information about the church, it evidently stopped short of 2007, when St. Michael's became the center of the area's Macedonian Orthodox Church; we were completely taken by surprise by the profusion of icons and the iconostasis that now separates the sanctuary from the nave.  This was a first for us in Italy!

From Neive, we took the back roads to Alba.  The hilly terrain was blanketed in vineyards, the rows closely spaced as they climbed and descended the slopes.  Though so many of the elements of the area are similar to Tuscany -- hills, vineyards, red tile roofs topping tawny homes and villages -- it seemed quite distinct to us, though it was hard to pinpoint just why.  In any case, the vistas were broad and beautiful, and we had a wonderful drive through this wine-centric area.  This is the home of Asti, Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera d'Alba and others, and there are enotecas and cantine (wine cellars) everywhere.

We stopped in Alba, with its massive duomo, for a walk around and a little contemporary culinary history.  Alba and nearby Bra were Ground Zero for the Slow Food movement, began by a group of local journalists in a defensive maneuver against the threat of fast food (and living) to Italy's gastronomic heritage and way of life.  Since its start in the late 1980s, it has become an international movement.  We also stopped in Bra, where we found little to hold our interest except for a little church pictured below.

In case you could not see the name on the church

Then, it was on to Turin, where checking into our apartment was more frustrating than we'd hoped.  The apartment faces a busy piazza where we'd been told parking would be available.  Let's just say, after a good bit of searching, Tom finally found a spot about a half mile away.  Not convenient, but the car will stay there, as we'll be using the Metro during our time in Turin; there's a station at our front door!  The rest of the good news is that the apartment is terrific -- a modern, two bedroom unit at the top of a seven-story building.  The balconies off the bedrooms look out on the snow-capped mountains that surround the city, and we also had a great view of the sunset.  Who needs a convenient parking spot anyway?!?