Alba to Asti

May 26, 2022

Last night’s dinner was excellent. We went to one of the three restaurants recommended by our host (one he suggested as a good place for coffee but we had our pasta lunch there yesterday). We would have tried one of the other two for dinner last night but both were closed. Unfortunate, because tonight was both delicious and good value.

Our fantastic primi piatti. I had agnolotti in a herbed butter sauce while Al had fresh pasta with Barolo ragù. My dish was similar to what we shared last night, in description and price, but almost twice the quantity. Daniele was right!

We shared the second course. They brought it on two plates; this is my half.

Walking back to our apartment, we didn’t have to worry about getting drenched and there was life on the street.

Alba main pedestrian street. I especially liked the balconies of the building on the left.

According to my Michelin map, it’s 32 km from Alba to Asti, but we took a quiet scenic route and rode 64 km with some climbing involved.

We started with a climb up to Verduno. This is when what little belief I had in the Climbpro feature on my new Garmin Edge 830 died. It showed an easy climb all in green with an average grade of 3.1%. It certainly was not! RWGPS shows it with an average grade of 6.8% and I might believe that. Maybe.

That’s La Morra up there, where we were yesterday.

Someone’s grandparent’s bike posing in Verduno. Al took this shot; the owner arrived when he was doing so and told him it was her grandfather’s (or grandmother’s) bike. I didn’t even see it!

In any case, we descended from Verduno and joined a busy road to cross the river. This was shown as white road on my Michelin map but when there aren’t many bridges in the area, those that are there tend to be well-used. We soon lost most of the traffic but gained a series of climbs and descents.

It was a steep descent from Verduno. Sure glad we didn’t go up this way!

A distinctive building but no idea which village this was.

Al was getting hungry and I was fading but none of the little villages we passed through had an open bar, café, or restaurant that we could see. Until, that is, we got to Priocca where we saw a large group of cyclists having lunch. We pulled in.

These fellow from Cyclo Club Piemonte were celebrating something more than their 110 km ride, I think. The fellow holding up the glass of Limoncello came over to talk to us. He’s just turned 82 (so perhaps it was his birthday?) and was riding a *very* nice Bianchi e-assist road bike.

I just liked the look of this church we passed.

Our host had contacted me earlier about time of arrival, and in learning we were cycling from Alba, had invited us to stop by her home in San Martino Alfieri for a drink. So that was our next stop. We had chinotto and chocolate truffles with Laura and Paolo in their beautiful garden, did the paperwork, and rode on to Asti. Paolo would give us a head start and meet us at the apartment. Yes, I should have taken a photo.

When we arrived, he showed us in, took us to the nearby garage to store our bikes, and forgot to leave us the homemade jam Laura gave him to bring for us. Such a nice guy; I won’t tell!

Later, we walked a couple of blocks to have dinner at a restaurant in a piazza. Al noticed that the kitchen wasn’t on the square but maybe 50 m down a narrow street. No wonder all the hot food arrived covered! It was very good.

Image not found :( — The restaurant. We were each given a glass of sparkling white wine in celebration of the restaurant’s fourth anniversary. We ordered glasses of Barbero d’Asti to accompany our meal—my favourite Italian wine so far.

We both opted for the same first course, ravioli with pesto, pine nuts, and bufala. It was delicious!

This restaurant had different-than-usual offerings, including a few “Piemontese sushi” items, which we didn’t try. This is our shared second course, espresso-marinated pork with mango and blackberry(?) sauces.

I just noticed that I started and ended this post with food pictures. Italy!

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Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,117 km (694 miles)

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