Turin: Winter Playground or Culinary Heaven?

by Neil Woodburn on

Yum.

Piedmont, as far as I knew, was just another region of Italy—one with few, if any, well-known cities and
almost no tourist attractions.  Today the Piedmont area is getting a tremendous amount of press thanks to the
previously unknown town of Turin which is now hosting the Winter Olympics. 

After the Olympics are over, however, Piedmont will undoubtedly fade from memory while Turin will remain entrenched
in everyone’s mind as nothing more than a ski resort. 

Piedmont, however, has much, much more to offer. 

A tantalizing LA Times article by
Catherine Saillant stays clear of the snow-and-ski theme dominating today’s press and focuses instead upon
why the area is truly beloved amongst in-the-know Italians: its food. 

Saillant signed on to a culinary tour arranged through Culinary Arts
International in Santa Barbara.  The week long tour wound its way through the region, stopping off for morning
cooking classes, three-course lunches, and multi-course dinners.  As you might imagine, wine played a dominate role
in the trip as well. 

The highlight of her travels, however, revolved around the region’s true specialty: the white truffle. 
Saillant joined a hunting expedition in which a trained dog sniffed out the culinary gems ($300 an ounce) buried in the
rich earth.  Her favorite meal of the trip, a simple fried egg coated with thin shavings of truffle, speaks to the
power this amazing fungus holds among foodies.

If I ever make it to Piedmont, I’m skipping the obligatory tour of the Olympic grounds and heading straight
for the restaurants instead.  You should think about doing the same. 

 

Word for the Travel Wise (01/30/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

11 days left before the Winter Olympics really begin to cook things up in chilly Turin which means it’s time for us to brush up on our Italian. Wouldn’t you agree? Many of us will probably tune in via our local cable station where our poor language skills will be forgiven, but for those making the journey abroad don’t just stand there – say something!

Today’s word is an Italian word used in Italy:

qualcosa – something

If you forget every other basic word in the book you can always count on saying something and something is often better than nothing. Depending on who or how you say the word my guess is you’ll either earn some slight laughter or a swift smack across the face. Not to say that this is even close to being foul or dirty, but let’s mind our manners. Besides the world may not be ready for your dry sense of humor.

Italian is yet another Romance lang spoken by some 70 million people primarily in Italy. Beautiful indeed. Seeing how popular the language is there isn’t much difficulty finding learning resources on the web.%uFFFD I’m a little unsure about what’s going on with this June29 site, but they have three very simple lessons to get your learning motors going. You might find the BBC your one stop shop in handling your needs. Dictionaries, lessons, audio, and slang are all included. Distance learning is always recommended in my book. Check out some of these programs abroad where you can study in various cities across the country and even Lugano, Switzerland. A few links to study abroad are as follows: Amerispan, World Link Education, and ILUSS. Head over to this Italian Book Store for suggested text.

Olympic Torch Tour of Italy Begins

by Dave (Blogsmith Old) on

Earlier today in Rome, Stefano Baldini, the first torchbearer of the Olympic Relay, received the torch from Italian President Ciampi. The Flame now begins a 64-day journey through 600 towns, traveling over 7,000 miles, before reaching its destination in Torino on February 10, 2006, where it will light the Olympic Cauldron and officially open the Winter Games. Over the next two months, the torch will cross the country transported by 10,000 torch bearers, heading first this week to Rieti. The torch will visit Palermo for Christmas, spend New Years in Naples, take a gondola ride in Venice (Jan. 17), mark the 50th anniversary of the last Italian Winter Games in Cortina (Jan. 26) and climb up Monte Bianco (Feb. 7). The torch will also pass through sections of France, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia along the way, before arriving in Torino for opening ceremonies. Each week until then, I’ll bring you periodic Torch Tour updates, which will highlight some of the towns along the route. Just look for this logo at least once each week for a Torch Tour Town profile, which might give you some ideas for where to head on your next Italian getaway!