Torino, day 2, and the Benedictine Abbey of Vezzolano

October 18, 2007, Thursday

I decided to go back to Torino to check out Eataly (www.eataly.it) and then go northwest to Albugnano to see the Benedictine Abbey of Vezzolano. Getting to Eataly was pretty easy as it’s right off the main road going into Torino from Alba. Eataly is one of the centers of the Slow Food movement here in Italy (www.slowfood.com). The slow food movement was started in Italy in 1986. It’s publication office was opened in Bra in 1987 (there’s a picture of the office in the Bra, La Morra, Barolo photo album).

Eataly bills itself as the largest food and wine market in Torino (they have plans for stores in Milan, Genoa, New York). It is a huge store for Italy. Probably about the size of the Whole Foods on El Camino Real at San Antonio in Palo Alto, with products that are along similar lines. Eataly places more emphasis on explaining the origin of the food they have, and also on the connection of the food with the locale in which it was grown. Eataly has a large education program with cooking classes, etc. I forgot to take pictures while I was there, but their website has several.

After strolling through Eataly, I drove to the Benedictine Abbey of Vezzolano. The guidebook said to go to Albugnano, but the abbey is in Vezzolano, so why not go there first? I programmed the Hertz Everlost to Vezzolano. After leaving Torino, I went most of the way back to Asti before heading north again (there are no highways between Torino and Albugnano/Vezzolano, only small roads). Once heading north, I kept getting semi-lost because the Everlost didn’t have the most current maps—especially for roundabouts. There are LOTS of roundabouts in this part of Italy where many roads come together. The Everlost system only tells you to take the 1^st (2^nd, 3^rd, etc.) exit off the roundabout, not the direction. But they add new roads to the roundabouts, so the Everlost count it off. Usually you’re okay because the signs tell you what exit takes you to towns in that direction. But for small towns, well, they aren’t listed.

At one point, Everlost took me across a field on a “road” (I’d have called it a tractor path—dirt, rocks, and any pavement disintegrated long ago). Finally it got me to what it thought was Vezzolano. I was in a small village of maybe 6 homes on the side of a hill. The road was almost wide enough for the tiny Fiat I was driving and it wound around buildings before coming to an even narrower path (another tractor path). I looked around and saw nothing that looked like an abbey, only farms and farm buildings.

So I pull into a yard with an old woman feeding chickens and ask. Where is the Benedictine Abbey of Vezzolano? She looked at me like I was crazy (whether because of my Italian or at the sight of some lost idiot from the city), but finally shook her head and explained that yes, Vezzolano was the way I was going, but that way was only a goat track she wouldn’t try in a 4-wheel drive truck (yes, I did get all that after she slowed down and repeated herself). She said, go back the way you came to the main road and go to Albugnano, and then to Vezzolano from that side, not from this side. She then added a bunch of turn left here, right there, go up the hill and turn right at something or other. Never mind. Even if I’d understood, I couldn’t have remembered. Grazie. Arrivederci.

Getting back into the car, I turned off the Everlost and tossed it into the trunk. Back to the main road and follow the signs to Albugnano. Albugnano is a small village (but huge compared to the little place I’d just been). It sits on the top of a hill and has great views over the countryside (there are pictures). From Albugnano, there are signs to Vezzolano. As near as I can tell, the only thing in Vezzolano are a few farms and the Benedictine Abbey which was built in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. It is the “finest example of Romanesque architecture in Piemonte.” By this time it’s 5:20pm. I approach the abbey and it’s locked. But someone is driving up to a solid wood gate, which is opened by a young boy. The car drives through and I try to ask the boy if I can get into the abbey? No, it closed at 5pm, he says as the gate swings shut with a deep boom. Okay. I drove 3 hours to get lost and get to the abbey after it closed.

The grounds around the abbey remind me of the descriptions of abbey life in the Cadfael mystery stories by Ellis Peters. There’s a walled orchard, and outside the wall there’s fields of vegetables. Too bad I didn’t get to go inside.

On the way home from Vezzolano, I see a sign to Pino d’Asti. This is a town that makesa white wine from pinto noir grapes. So I say, why not take a look. It’s another hill town, but the hill is very high and precipitous, and a pretty nice drive to the top. The road through the village comes up one side of the hill, wanders across the top, and down the other side. The road is seldom straight, but has switchbacks going up and down, and winds through the village, probably following cow paths or pedestrian ways from the past.

Finally back in Alba (it took much less time to return since I didn’t get lost as often). I had dinner at Osteria la Libera (Michelin recommendation). Nice place. The food was good, but not great.

Note: The cost of unleaded gas is about euro 1.35 per liter, which is about $1.89 per liter, or approximately $7.80 per gallon. It took euro 53 ($74) to fill up a very small Fiat Punto. So when I come home, I don’t think I’ll be complaining about gas prices!