Alba: city of towers, truffle and wine
Alba is famous all over the world for wine and truffles, and it is nowadays considered as the gastronomic capital of Langhe. Autumn is the busiest period in the year: grape harvesting for wine production and the International White Truffle festival, that turns Langhe products into celebrities every year in October and November since 1929.
Nowadays the festival is home for gourmands and experts from all over the world. Beside the market, many workshops, tastings, conferences, events and historical reenactments take place. The historical centre turns back into a Middle Age city, with games, traditions and jobs, but also important ceremonies such as the investiture of Podesta, and comic events such as the donkeys’ Palio, started as a joke of rivalry to the city of Asti.
While walking in the centre, you will notice many towers. They are some of the “hundred towers” built in the Middle Age together with the walls to protect Alba and set its authority on the surrounding area. Some towers stood alone, but then they lowered or included in new buildings. Nowadays there are around ten towers left, they are visible also from the villages and hills in the area, and they make the Alba skyline definitely distinctive.
In the Middle Age, Alba has often been invaded, but it always reacted strongly. In the Second World War the city called itself the first independent partisan Republic, for which it deserved a military merit medal.
Alba has a special taste and a strong character. You can taste its Middle Age centre and its delicious cuisine in less than one hour by car from here.