CHEESES, NOUGATS AND WINES: INDUSTRY STARTS OVER FROM TRADITION

In the “History of Turin” published by Einaudi, the most renowned Piedmontese publishing house, one reads that in 1864 the transfer from Turin to Florence of the Italian capital provoked a popular insurrection that was repressed in blood. Those who fell on the pavement of the Savoyard squares were mainly artisans, small employees, servants who saw that, due to the removal of the Court, they risked their jobs. But it was the whole town that felt wounded, betrayed in its proverbial devotion to the crown and in the enthusiastic assent to the events of the Risorgimento.

The link between the renaissance myth and the new image of Turin can be found in a written work of De Amicis that precedes only by a little his best-seller “Cuore”: the arcades of the central streets are described as triumphal arches of the victorious exploit towards national unity, but in the new quarters lives already “the Turin in overalls, that gets up early and works with a watch in its hand”. Also the rice-pickers from Vercelli get up early and break their back from dawn in the rice-fields and have the sorrowful beauty of Silvana Mangano in the movie “Riso Amaro”.

These are two aspects of the region, the industrial and agricultural that, from the post-war period onwards, will be destined to a difficult and at the same time important cohabitation. In the second post-war period only the Biella region, with the establishment of Olivetti, and part of Novara and Alessandria regions, with the metallurgic and pneumatic industries driven by the presence of Fiat, keep up with progress, while the gap between these economically leading areas and the Cuneo area widens. This area however will redeem itself thanks to the birth of a prosperous confectionary and wine industry.

And it is precisely to the wine that goes the Nobel prize of regional types. There are 43 Piedmontese Doc quality wines that are best with the region’s sweets and nougats stuffed with the savoury Piedmontese hazel-nuts (Igp trademark, just like Bologna mortadella which, despite its name, is also typical of this region). But, going back to the wines, the choice offered by the Piedmont region is really enviable: taste and pleasure range from Dolcetto d’Acqui, produced with the grapes of a well-known Piedmontese grape variety, to Erbaluce di Caluso; from Nebbiolo to Dolcetto d’Alba, to be served at room temperature with polenta, roasts, braised meats and seasoned cheeses with Pdo label (Bra, Castelmagno, Gorgonzola, Taleggio, Piedmontese Toma, Grana Padano, Raschera, Murazzano and Robiola di Roccaverano). And you can toast to the sweet richness of the grape varieties of the Asti area with 8 Docg wines, among which are Asti, Barolo and Brachetto d’Acqui. All of which console those Piedmontese people who, sometimes, when thinking of history, still dream of the lost capital.