From the Island to the Hill: Giuseppe's Awakening Among the Langhe and Roero Vineyards

Hello to all travelers and lovers of the good life!

Today I want to share a story. Not one of our usual guides or reviews, but a tale of an encounter that truly touched our hearts. It's the story of Giuseppe, a young Sicilian man, born between the intense blue of the Mediterranean and the heat of the sun on his land, who came seeking a part of Italy he didn't know: our hills, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Giuseppe chose to stay with us, right here in Pollenzo, in the beating heart of the Roero, in a place that breathes history and gastronomy.

The Arrival: The Unexpected Balance

Giuseppe arrived on a late September afternoon, when the vineyards of the Langhe and Roero dress themselves in that breathtaking gold and crimson.

"Everything is so... organized," he told me, with his melodic, vibrant accent.

Sicily, he explained, is a land of violent contrasts: the black of the lava, the blinding blue of the sea, the intense yellow of the citrus groves. Its hills are sometimes wild, left to the wind, or shaped by ancient olive trees in a sublime chaos.

Here, however, he found an almost geometric harmony. The rows of Nebbiolo rising and falling with precision, drawn by the expert hand of man who, over centuries, has sculpted the landscape like a work of art. An "ethical" beauty, as a famous painter once called it, born from meticulous care.

Similarities: The Cult of the Land

Despite the chromatic and morphological diversity, there is a common thread (or perhaps, a ruby-red thread) that links Giuseppe's land to ours: a sacred respect for the product and the territory.

• The Wine: In Sicily, wine is an ancient history—Marsala, sweet Passitos, Nero d'Avola—wines of sun and salt. Here, it’s Barolo, Barbaresco, Arneis—wines of fog and hill. But in both places, wine is not just a drink; it is the identity of a people, its history told in a glass.
• The People: Giuseppe noticed our initial reserve, the typical "Piedmontese unfriendliness" that melts, however, into an authentic generosity, very similar to the warm Sicilian welcome, though expressed less exuberantly. Two peoples bound by hard work and pride.
• The Table: And what about the table? The richness of flavors, the importance of the raw ingredient. If Sicily celebrates fresh fish, pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines), parmigiana, and cassata, here we exalt raw meat, handmade tajarin (thin egg noodles), bagna cauda, and truffles. Different products, but the same unconditional love for true, genuine food.

The Roero and Pollenzo: An Oasis for the Palate

Giuseppe loved the tranquility of our accommodations in Pollenzo. He walked through the ancient walls of the Agency, visited the Banca del Vino (Wine Bank) – an experience that left him speechless due to the immense heritage stored there – and dined, tasting the differences between Langa and Roero: the sandier, younger soils of the Roero yielding fresher white wines like Arneis, contrasted with the clayey marls of the Langhe, the homeland of the great, age-worthy reds.

"In Pollenzo, time seems to flow slowly, the same slowness you find in the more inland towns of Sicily, where tradition still dictates the pace," he confided one evening. "But here, there's also a new energy, the University of Gastronomic Sciences, which looks to the future without forgetting history. It's a perfect crossroad."

The Departure: A Handful of Hazelnuts and a Memory

Before leaving, Giuseppe bought a bag of Tonda Gentile delle Langhe Hazelnuts. "They have the scent of the woods and an elegance I didn't expect," he said.

His journey was not just a change of scenery, but a discovery of unexpected affinities. He left the sea for the hills, the relentless sun for the autumnal fog, but he found the same passion, the same regional pride that characterizes every true Italian.

The Langhe and Roero are not Sicily; they are another Italian masterpiece. And the beauty lies precisely in this comparison, in these diversities that make us unique.

Thank you, Giuseppe, for sharing your perspective with us. Come visit again soon!