A Week In Piedmont: Part 1
Because I've gained so much insight from this forum, I thought I'd offer my thoughts on Tauck's new "A Week in Piedmont Tour," which we finished in October. In short, we LOVED this tour; however, we enjoy wine and food immensely, which seemed to be a primary focus.
We arrived one day early in Torino, which is the fourth largest city in Italy. There are so many things to do there. We used our free time to visit the Cinema and Lavaza museums, both of which we enjoyed. (Please be advised that the Egyptian Museum is the most important Egyptian Museum outside of Egypt, and it is closed on some days. Look and book ahead if you are interested.) There is also a beautiful indoor spa pool (free) in the basement of the Hotel Principi di Piemonte. On day 2, there is a walking tour of the town with a local guide, a visit to the Automobile Museum and the original Eataly, and lunch. The rest of the day is on your own.
Day 3: We boarded the coach and went on a visit to the Royal Hunting Lodge and then on to the Banco de Vino, which was a highlight for us, and not only because of the wine tasting itself. It was founded by the slow-food movement to preserve and promote quality Italian wine, and houses over 100,000 bottles from approximately 300 different producers across Italy. After lunch, we traveled to the next hotel, the Boscareto Resort & Spa, which had wonderful views and also a nice spa. Dinner there was spectacular, and we were allowed to order our food from the a la carte menu, something that was done often on past Tauck tours.
Day 4: This was a wonderful day. We thoroughly enjoyed this truffle-hunting experience, which was over and above any of the other truffle experiences we have had with Tauck. Perhaps it was because we were right at the beginning of the white truffle season, or perhaps it was the owner herself, as she took us along with her two dogs to hunt truffles. We spent a long time with these delightful dogs, and we found two black truffles and two white truffles. One of the black truffles was taken to our pasta-making class at Castello di Roddi, which again exceeded other pasta-making classes we have taken with Tauck, because we made the dough, used a pasta roller to roll the dough, hand-cut the dough, and cooked the pasta! We then filled our bowls with this deliciousness and shavings from that truffle were sprinkled over our hot pasta. Later, we had a short tour in Alba, followed by free time. Dinner was at a local restaurant (Tre Case).