Tag Archives: Piemonte

The ultimate StairMaster.

Posted on 07/09/2020 by awtytravels

From the comfortable flatness of London, Alpine trekking evokes images of paths meandering towards isolated peaks and a soft mattress of pine needles covering a path running through the woods. Not in the mountains surrounding my hometown, though. Boulders make … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alps, Animals, Bee, Black, Bovine, Buddhism, Cable car, Clouds, Cow, Dublin, Dubliners, Flat, Flower, Hiking, Insect, Italy, Madonna, Mary, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Oropa, Paddy, Piedmont, Piemonte, Prealpi, Rice, Rock, Rocky road, Ropeway, Sanctuary, Shepherd, Summer, Trekking, Yellow | 28 Comments

About home.

Posted on 01/07/2020 by awtytravels

Slowly, with a lot of very British dithering and even-more-British bursts of anti-social behaviour, our society is opening up. A few days ago, I went on the Tube: my first public transport ride since mid-March. Pubs are rumoured to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alpi, cafetiere, Carabinieri, Cat, Coronavirus, Covid, Italia, Italy, Local news, Lockdown, Mountains, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Rutger Hauer, Snow, Tractor, Trivero, Valle Cervo | 22 Comments

Travels in Italy’s 11th most-visited region.

Posted on 06/10/2019 by awtytravels

There are twenty regions in Italy (or perhaps it’s only 19; Molise’s existence, much like dark matter, is still a matter for debate); together in 2018 they hosted a whopping 429 million tourists, half of them foreigners (of whom at … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alba, Alps, Art, Asti, Autumn, Barbaresco, Barbera, Barolo, Belvedere, Beppe Fenoglio, Biella, Cattle, Cuneo, DOC, DOCG, Dogliani, Europe, Granda, Hills, Horse, horses, Italia, Italy, La Morra, Langhe, Llama, Mare, Modern Art, Monforte d'Alba, Montezemolo, Mountains, Occitania, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Prealps, Roero, Stallion, Torino, Tourism, Turin, Wine, Winery | 17 Comments

There were…

Posted on 02/10/2019 by awtytravels

…a rhino, a wedding, a few horses and a running llama. They all were here, in the same region. It’ll all make sense. Hopefully.

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Biella, Europe, Italy, La Morra, Langhe, Mountains, Photography, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Tourism, Travel | 9 Comments

Harvest Moon.

Posted on 31/10/2018 by awtytravels

I once met an elderly lady who lived in a minuscule Alpine village of which she was the only permanent inhabitant. Well into her seventies when we crossed paths, she was busy chopping down a young spruce tree, manoeuvring an … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Baud, Bonarda, Ca d' baud, Grape, Grape Harvesting, Harvest, Massazza, Novara, Piedmont, Piemonte, Sizzano, Vendemmia, Vino, Wine | 26 Comments

In memory of Mr Voghera.

Posted on 15/03/2018 by awtytravels

We’d parked our car in corso Matteotti. Under a fastidious rain we walked, rather aimlessly, towards via Roma. My feeling of despondency, due to the realisation that I’d started forgetting the streets of a city I’d lived in for five … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte, Random memories | Tagged Armistice, Auschwitz, Benito Mussolini, Bolzano, corso Matteotti, Day of Memory, Deportation, Fascism, Ferruccio Voghera, Final solution, Fossoli, Gino Voghera, Gunter Demnig, Holocaust, Italian Jews, Italy, Jews, Memory, Nazism, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Racial Laws in Italy, Racism, San Sabba, Shoah, Stolperstein, Torino, Trieste, Turin, WWII | 25 Comments

The land beneath the mountains.

Posted on 18/12/2017 by awtytravels

That’s the name of my region. The land at the feet of the mountains. Click on the photo to open the panorama In my region, topography is binary. Clear cut. It’s either flat, or mountainous. No middle ground, no rolling … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alpi, Alps, Biella, Bird, Bird spotting, Duck, Emigration, Expat, Fara Novarese, Fields, Fourteener, Geese, Glacier, Immigrant, Italia, Italy, Lake, London, Malpensa, Massazza, Masserano, Massif, Monte Rosa, Musings, nature, North West Italy, Novara, Piedicavallo, Piemonte, Reservoir, Snow, Switzerland, Travel, Vercelli, Vineyard, Water, Winter, Woods | 13 Comments

Licensed to Ill: driving your teenage roads, twelve years on.

Posted on 27/11/2016 by awtytravels

Unlike many of my peers, I wasn’t given a car as a birthday present when I turned 18. Publicly I was saying I didn’t want it but I knew it was a case of fox and grapes with a numberplate, … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Ad-Rock, Alps, Autumn, Beastie Boys, Clio, Driving, Fall, Golf, Italy, Licenced to Ill, MCA, Memories, Mike D, Mucrone, Northern Italy, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Renault, Volkswagen | 8 Comments

Modern art

Posted on 14/07/2016 by awtytravels

I don’t often go to modern art fairs, mainly because I don’t get it at all, and I have a tendency to express scorn and not-so-educated scathing comments out loud when everyone else is silent (it’s a family gift, Dad … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Art, Arte, Italia, Italy, Paratissima, Piedmont, Piemonte, Torino, Turin | 8 Comments

“It’s all they’re asking these days”.

Posted on 24/04/2016 by awtytravels

“Is it organic?” The scorn, on Alberto’s face, was evident. “These days they don’t even check if the wine’s good or not, if it isn’t organic no one wants to give a euro for it”. We scanned the view from … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Arneis, Barolo, Italia, Italy, Langhe, Monferrato, Organic wine, Piedmont, Piemonte, Roero, Spring, Vineyard, Wineyard | 6 Comments