Through the Italian Alps. Gillian Price
These generally have bunk beds – hopefully with blankets – and some sort of cooking/heating facilities. Users need to bring their own food and sleeping bag. Experienced walkers who don’t mind roughing it can therefore embark on the GTA even when the rifugi are closed for business.
The bivacco is a small, unmanned hut that is always open. It has bunk beds, not necessarily blankets or heating, occasionally cooking facilities and usually easy access to water. A handful are encountered during the GTA.
Serious consideration should be given to the camping option. Anyone prepared to carry the extra equipment and weight is guaranteed a magnificent – not to mention cheaper – experience. Alternating wild pitches with hostels and rifugi is the perfect way to tackle the trek and get the most out of it. However, it does entail an extra burden so think carefully before loading up with tent, sleeping bag and cooking equipment. (Note Camping Gaz canisters are forbidden on planes but are widely available in Italy at city sports stores and main resorts.) Numerous stages entail gargantuan climbs to wonderful passes and wild high mountainous zones where it would be great to linger, rather than hurry away on the quest for comfortable accommodation in valley locations. A little advance planning (such as purchasing food in villages – though don’t forget that the shepherds often sell dairy products) can result in memorable alfresco dinners. Several of the resort villages on the GTA route have camping grounds (mentioned in the route description where known). With the exception of the protected parks and reserves, where pitching a tent is strictly forbidden, there are endless possibilities for nights out in spectacular isolated valleys.
Telephones
To phone Italy from overseas, use the international dialling code 39 before the number. When calling within Italy always include the area code and the initial 0, even if it’s local. Exceptions are toll-free numbers – which mostly start with 800 – or mobile phones, which begin with 3. When calling from a public phone a prepaid card can be handy as very few accept coins. A carta telefonica can be purchased from tobacconists and shops; remember to remove the dotted corner before use. A mobile phone can also be useful during the trek (recharger and adapter essential), although reception in the alpine valleys of Piedmont is only available about 50% of the time.
Gourmet picnic
Food and Drink
A wonderful array of local dishes is encountered at the guesthouses and refuges along the GTA. Be adventurous and ask for local specialities: Qual’é la vostra specialità?
A common way to begin a meal in Piedmont is with antipasti, starters. Unfailingly worthwhile and varied, they range from home-pickled vegetables to cold meats and cheeses. In addition to the ubiquitous prosciutto cotto or crudo (normal ham or ‘raw’ cured ham), there are infinite varieties of salami including cinghiale (boar), suino (pork), and even asinello (a type of donkey)! Leaner and more delicate is sliced mocetta: originally made with ibex meat nowadays it contains beef, marinated in spices, brandy and honey. In the Cuneo valleys hunt out caiet, a type of chunky salami that has been cooked with herbs. Unusual accompanying bread is dark pane all’acqua, a blend of cereals and malt.
A unique savoury dish from the Piedmont plains is bagna cauda: diners help themselves from a platter of raw or partially cooked vegetables such as peperoni (capsicums) which are dipped into a delicious warm sauce made from huge quantities of garlic (formerly soaked in milk), anchovies and olive oil.
In terms of the First course (primo piatto) soup could be minestrone, a mixed vegetable hotpot or minestra di legumi, a thick brew with pulses. In Valsesia they serve up warming traditional skilà, broth with cheese and rye bread, whereas the Canavese valleys offer soupa coüssot, a thick baked affair with soft bread, sausage and corgette. Straightforward pasta dishes such as pasta con ragù (meat sauce) or pomodoro (tomato) are widely available. In the valleys of the Maritime Alps keep an eye out for ear-shaped cruzet moistened with melted butter and sage. Agnolotti, bundles of home-made pasta bulging with a mix of minced meats often come in a drizzle of oily sauce from roast meat, whereas finely chopped noci (walnuts) may be used on ribbon tagliatelle. Traditional Occitan fare may mean raviolas de Blins, tiny dumplings from the Bellino valley, or sebos abausos, onions stuffed with rice, egg and minced meat.
Speciality sausages
Valle Tanaro (at the walk start) is known for polenta saracena, so-called for its main ingredient, tartary buckwheat, dubbed ‘Saracen’ in Italian for its dark colour, reminiscent of the long-ago invaders. Potato is blended with flour, and served with a sauce of milk, leeks and wild mushrooms. The Valle Varaita offers a simpler version known as polenta de trifolas e fromentin. More widespread is polenta concia, steaming yellow cornmeal smothered in either funghi (mushrooms), formaggio fuso (melted cheese) or spezzatino in umido, stewed meat. Game (selvaggina) is not unusual and menus offer capriolo (roe deer) or cervo (venison). A must for gourmet carnivores (not put off by the name) is fragrant brüscitt, minced beef simmered in red wine with cloves. Continuing with the second course (secondo piatto), you will occasionally be offered fresh trout (trota), especially in the Valsesia where fly-fishing is popular. Unconsumed fish are then fried and pickled in onion, herbs and vinegar, to produce flavoursome trota in carpione.
Piedmont cheeses deserve a guide all to themselves. In general, farm-made cheeses are called toma and produced from either latte di mucca/vacca (cows’ milk), pecora (sheep), capra (goat) or a combination. The smaller, more pungent, rounds are tomini, sprinkled liberally with chilli powder or aromatic herbs. One notable cheese from the Ligurian valleys is raschera, made from cows’ milk, usually in traditional square forms and originally flavoured with grape residue. Connoisseurs will also appreciate testun, whose ochre-coloured crust protects a well-seasoned sheep’s cheese. A sister to the mighty Gorgonzola is Murianengo, produced in the Susa valley. The Valle d’Aosta boasts a milder but full-fat creamy cheese known as fontina which comes in oversized 15–20kg rounds and is delicious melted in risotto or fonduta. The Canavese valleys produce curious brüs, a highly peppered cottage cheese, while Valsesia boasts fragrant delicate rounds of piodino made from cows’ milk as well as the unusual salugnun, a fresh cheese flavoured with pepper and cumin. Ricotta, a fresh soft cheese that is totally unsuitable for rucksack travel, demands consumption on the spot.
Desserts are topped by luscious bônet, vaguely reminiscent of crême caramel but flavoured with rum and amaretti, bitter almond cookies. Somewhat similar in taste are baked apricots topped with the same crushed biscuits plus chocolate. The ultimate for the sweet-toothed is to indulge in the renowned, unbelievably rich chocolates invented in Cuneo and appropriately called Cuneesi. These are treacherous masses of soft dark cocoa mass moulded around an unbelievably rich soft centre of rum-flavoured cream, the classical flavour al rhum, though they also come with hazelnut fillings. (The best come from elegant café Pasticceria Arione in the city’s main square.)
Cheeses maturing at Alpe Maccagno (Stage 41)
On the wine front, Piedmont is arguably Italy’s leading region for the production of memorable vintages, dominated by reds. While very drinkable house wines (vino della casa) are normally served, special occasions warrant splashing out for a bottle. Sturdy tannic Barbera, prestigious Barolo and Nebbiolo rank among the top reds, with Freisa and Grignolino not far behind. Another favourite is softer Dolcetto. In a class of its own is excellent Gattinara, which hails from the vicinity of Varallo. Little-known wines include Ormeasco, a light fresh young red from near the GTA start, while deep-coloured Carema from the lower Valle d’Aosta is gaining attention for its quality. There are fewer white wines, but noteworthies include Chardonnay and lightweight special Blanc de Morgex from the Valle d’Aosta region.
Strong liquors made with aromatic alpine herbs with digestive properties range from Genepy to Arquebuse (so-called in France as it was used to treat wounds inflicted by firearms!). A common Italian after-dinner spirit is fiery grappa, made from grape lees. Flavoured with everything from rue to violet and gentian root it also comes with