I feel very lucky to be able to say that we’ve just spent our second successive Christmas in Italy. This year, Olivia, my cousin Sophie (also from Melbourne but living in London) and I found ourselves in Turin visiting my Cousin Anna. Yes, the one who visited us in London back in August. Not having been to Turin before I was keen to see what it was all about, I was pleasantly surprised.
We arrived around Saturday lunchtime and Anna lives about 30km south of Turin, so by the time we got to Cumiana we were ready for a good feed. Anna obliged by taking us to a local restaurant that was nothing short of superb. Over about three hours we consumed all manner of interesting dishes, including truffle risotto, variations of baccala (salt cod) and one of the more interesting antipasto platters I’ve encountered. To me it’s always a good sign when there’s no printed menu, rather a handwritten list which the restaurant owner reads to you..
The highlight for me came at the end of the meal when we opted for a cheese platter instead of dessert. The platter was insanely large and was laden with eight different cheeses – all local to Piedmont, berries, nuts and fruits – incredible. Given that these cheeses were all unfamilar to me I had to digest them on many levels… I asked the owner for a list of the names of the cheeses so I could remember them. She came back with a list of the cheeses, how long they had been matured for – and the address of the shop where I could buy them for myself!!! Now that’s service.. I have a new love in my life, and I don’t mean the restaurant owner – ROBIOLA was by far my favorite cheese of the day… It’s a soft cheese and is delicious without having an overpowering flavour. I’m sold, and eagerly look forward to my next trip to Italy where I’ll pick some of this up…
One of the great things about the EU is that you can transport pretty much any food products between its countries without any restriction (all within reason of course). With this in mind we went to the local supermarket in Cumiana and went a bit crazy. 100 euros later we had a heavy-ish box of freshly made gnocchi, gorgonzola, parmesan, a dozen sausages, mustard fruits, some full-on olive oil, a panettone… you get the picture. It was great.. as long as we could get it all back to London – which we did – YAY.. Here’s a picture of the loot.
For the middle of winter it was unusually sunny in Turin. This is the view from Anna’s balcony. Aside from the Wow factor – the things to notice are the clear, blue skies – in stark contrast to the fog enveloping London at the same time, and also the relatively small amounts of snow on the mountains -normally at this time of the year you’d be looking at a photo of a white mountain. Not a bad view, eh?
We spent a day at the snow.. Since there wasn’t much snow around Cumiana or Turin itself, Anna took us to Sestriere, about 90min away. Sestriere was one of the locations where events for the 2006 Winter Olympics were held. We spent a lovely day admiring the view, breathing in the mountain air, playing in the snow. We loved it. One day at the snow per year simply isn’t enough. Who knows, one day we might even get around to learning to ski and having a proper holiday in the mountains.
Christmas dinner (which we did on Xmas eve) was delicious as you would expect – yet different to any Xmas feast I’d had before. We started with some meat filled ravioli with a bolognese sauce. Main was a tray of boiled meats served with a variety of sauces. No people, don’t cringe – it was great. The whole boiled meat thing is a delicacy of the Piedmont region and worked really well.. We were stuffed by the end of this but we still had the smelly cheese and plum pudding to go.. We got it all in, but then needed a late night digestive walk to settle things down.
Just as a side note, the Epoisse (smelly cheese) went down a treat – and just as it had done in London it stank Anna’s fridge out too. She told me all about how a glass of vinegar would absorb the smell overnight. Alas the vinegar was no match for the cheese. I wonder how Anna dealt with it after we left.. Perhaps she lit a match?
On Christmas day itself, after a pleasant sleep in we drove into Turin proper for a wander. We got there around lunchtime and the place was like a ghost town. The odd place was open but people were few and far between. So we had the city to ourselves… and we window shopped for a good while. You will all know me as a bit of a fashion antichrist but I had to admit to being really impressed with the Italian fashions. Some lovely stuff there.. By late afternoon all the locals finished their Christmas lunches and decended on the city. By 5pm the city was packed with people, just having a walk around with their families – it was beautiful to see. Wish we had more of that back home. The city itself is beautiful, and without the tourist crowds you see in some of the bigger Italian cities. Well worth a visit if you want to see some pretty sights and do your shopping in peace.
That’s long enough for one post.. We had a great time. It was great to spend some time with Anna and see a new city. Tomorrow night for New Year’s Eve we’re cooking up a storm with some of the yummy bits and pieces we brought back from Italy – what a feast it shall be.
By the way, here’s a darling photo of Olivia at the snow – just had to share…
