The Alba Truffle Festival!

But first, I went back for one more Pilates class in the morning. This was a group class and it was a group (10 people) mat class and to my chagrin, mostly on the foam roller–not my favorite tool. I did enjoy it and Pilates is keeping my body comfortable here, just like at home. Our group met right afterwards at “our” bar for coffee.

I have really loved the umami, earthy, sexy flavor of truffles for about 15 years and the Alba Festival is something I have always wanted to experience. Yes, it was very crowded and, really, at least as much about wine as truffles but I really enjoyed it. In addition to the €4 entrance fee, you could buy a glass for €9.50 which gave you 2 small glasses of wine at the bar and unlimited tasting at the booths of the various local producers. I really had no stradegy for tasting and just went around randomly. Early on I tried a sparkling Arneis from Demarie that I loved. Linda and Ken focused on the sweet wines and Steve on the Barolos. Here are some shots from the fair:

Finally we bought one 16 gram truffle, a small hazlenut cake and a bottle of Brachetto and left the building. We found a bench nearby and where we sat to people watch and rest for a while. Hungry, we found a little lunch spot, away from the tourist area for sandwhiches and went home to rest.

Gastronomia Primo was where we had to go to get the best fresh pasta for our truffle. Some how (I admit it was my fault) our bag was full of a bunch of other food from there, too. After the shopping trip we came home to get organized/pack. It hasn’t sunk in yet that our week here is nearly over.

Dinner prep was so exciting with our own special truffle. It smelled wonderful but we felt like we really had too much pasta for the size of the truffle we bought. The pasta itself was just perfect and the meal was great fun.

Linda had a weird experience with someone trying to get onto her Capital One Visa online account. We all really think it was a guy at the train station who was inserting himslef into our scene at the ticket machine. Anyway, she got it all resolved.

We talked and laughed and at some more until my eyes were closing. Last night in Alba. A great day and a great week.