The road sign said Santa Vittoria. I wondered whether the village clinging to the mountainside was the one that had the Fountain of the Peeing Turtle on its piazza.
I would have loved to see and to walk the cobblestones where, towards the end of World War II, Mayor Italo Bombolini of Robert Crichton’s 1960s classic The Secret of Santa Vittoria employed his Machiavellian philosophy to cheat the Germans’ Nietzschean Captain Sepp von Prum out of confiscating the town’s precious stash of wine.
But I was in a party of environmental journalists headed for Alba a little further on to join a discussion on “wellbeing and happiness” and the connection between them. The conference was held in the town’s Teatro Sociale, which dates from 1852.
However, it might not have been the town of Crichton’s book, as there is another Santa Vittoria on the eastern side of Italy’s Apennine spine.
We were in Cuneo province in the country’s north-western Piedmont region along the south-western Alps.
Alba offered its own delights. It has roots going back to before Roman times, probably to when Celts and Ligures lived there.
A Roman consul named Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, who died in 87BC, is believed to have built a town where their abodes were.
Today’s Alba, which stands on the ruins of the Roman town, is the product of several sackings and reconstructions during the dark and the middle ages, and has many places of historic interest.
Among these is the large cathedral of San Lorenzo, a 19th century rebuild of structures going back to the 15th century.
San Domenico’s Church was built in 1292, and Santa Catarina’s Church in the 17th century.
Alba was once known as “the town of a hundred towers” and there are a few of these structures left that, from about the 12th century, served as a defence and a mark of wealth.
Its Teatro Sociale is an intimate theatre in a horseshoe shape. It has two levels of curtained-off stalls in which all you need to complete the picture is a top hat, tailcoats and a monocle to follow proceedings on the stage down below.
Our conference was arranged by the Italian-based Greenaccord environmental organisation, and one of the most entertaining speakers was Fra Bernardino Greco, also known as the Hermit.
Wearing sandals and the simple brown robes of the Franciscan order, the ageing friar explained that he was called Hermit because he lived by himself in a cottage in the forest. People often asked whether he did not get lonely, but his answer was: “How could I? I’ve got the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the animals, the trees and the stars.”
Somehow the old man’s idea of happiness echoed something about life in Alba and the surrounding villages set among the vineyards and orchards stretching across the hills and valleys.
Tourists and locals enjoy meals and coffee in street cafes. People go about their business in little boutique shops along the cobblestone lanes in probably much the same way their forebears had done for hundreds of years.
It is the simplicity that holds the charm.
The people of the region take particular pride in their wine. At dinner a bottle labelled “Barolo” was tenderly presented, and we learned that it was known as the “king of wines” and the “wine of kings”.
But it is for its white truffles that Alba is best known. Once a year its international auction, at which this mysterious fungus attains prices far higher than its equivalent weight in gold, takes centre stage. In 2009 one of 700g and the size of a large potato fetched $150 000.
The televised auction is run simultaneously in London and Hong Kong. Its venue in Alba is the Castle of Grinzane Cavour that stands atop a hill from where it commands sweeping views of the low hills, vineyards and the hamlets further away.
The fortress was built in the 13th century and took its name from Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the architect and first prime minister of unified Italy who lived in it when he was the mayor of Grinzane.
The castle is a tourist attraction. It has beautiful panelled ceilings, frescoes, curious portraits and a museum containing old farm implements and showing Cavour’s office, his bedroom and his chamber pot.
It has an excellent wine shop.
It also is the location from which 18 scientists, after serious deliberation, issued their consensus statement that wine is good for you.
The castle, of course, has a curio shop, which is where I was given a marvellous book on truffles.
Its title is il tartufo d’oro, with a sub-title that says: “From Italian earth to Hong Kong table – the journey of a record-breaking white truffle”.
Beautifully written by Richard Cook and illustrated with atmospheric white-and-black pictures by Marcus Olenuk, it details the history and mystique of the prized delicacy that has been described as smelling of earth, tree roots, old cheese and even cabbage.
It is about how truffle hunters set out in the dark with their mongrel dogs to search the forests, how it is dug out and pocketed, and how there remains an essential secrecy about the operation as some of the truffles are traded to long-established clients, which could be agents or restaurants. The town even has a University for Truffle Hunting Dogs, where training starts by rubbing truffle oil on a puppy mother’s teats to foster a good nose for the fungus.
Most of the nocturnal produce is then taken to the truffle fair in Alba, a fair that dates back to 1929. It is a colourful affair that is treated as a social event.
It is also serious business, providing a livelihood for a good number of the region’s farmers and making millions for others who are expert at picking the best and shipping these to markets around the globe.
Our group’s Alba excursion ended with dinner in the refectory of the Cherasco Monastery.
Set in the nearby quaint village of Cherasco, it is a stately building which dates back to the 16th century and which has been turned into an upmarket hotel with conference facilities, a spa and swimming pool and beautiful views of the Alps.
l The truffle season is from September to November, but the height of the truffle fair, culminating in the international auction, is usually around late October to early November. For information, e-mail info@fieradeltartufo.org
l Being close to the Alps, it starts getting cooler and wetter by October. The mild weather and autumn colours, too, make it a good time to visit.
l Accommodation in Alba is said to get tight during the truffle fair and bookings need to be made well in advance. But the surrounding towns and villages offer plenty of alternatives.
l For more information on the Cherasco Monastery and for bookings go to http://www.piedmontplaces.com/ - Saturday Star