Ciao!

So here we are, off on our Italian vacation. We're visiting two regions in northern Italy: Piedmont and Liguria. Our style of travel has us setting up shop in one spot and exploring out from there. If you're the kind of person who likes to hit all the hot spots in one trip, you may find the way we travel to be a little strange. We tend to travel on our stomachs and this directs our itineraries in a major way. We're also not driven to see museums, churches or major cultural sites (although we'll visit them if they present themselves for inspection).

Piedmont, you see, is the home of white truffles (and great wines and fabulous cheese). Every October and November, the city of Alba is perfumed with the fragrance of white truffles and black summer truffles. Liguria is the home of pesto (and fabulous street food like farinata (a chickpea crepe cooked in a woodburning oven) and amazing seafood). You see how easy this decision was to make?

We're spending about a week in each province and are starting off the trip in Piedmont. This picture is of a shop window displaying truffles for sale. They may look expensive, but buying your own truffle is the way to go for economy's sake. Restaurants here charge a supplement of about 30 euros for a shaving of truffles on your pasta. You can buy a walnut-sized truffle for about 50 euros. If you have a kitchen at your disposal, as we do(!), you can eat all you want of one of Italy's finest culinary treats.