WESTERN EUROPE - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 61

seven-course supper, some people still have room
for more at the end of a day's grazing. For an
extra fee, you can join them each evening at one
of several hosted dinners in restaurants across
the city and in castles, country houses and
rural trattorie in the surrounding Piedmontese
countryside, as some of Italy's finest chefs
prepare their favourite local meals. Add a
constant background of music from Cape Verde
to Lake Baikal played live throughout the day,
the chance to buy as much as you can carry on
the train home for Christmas gifts and indulgent
treats, and the city of Turin all around if you
fancy a stroll around a gallery or two, and you
have a recipe to satisfy almost every palate.

084 FeaSt at Salone del GuSto,
italy

Turn a corner and you're at one end of a long
aisle, its sides lined with stalls selling nothing but
chocolate. Turn a different corner and you enter
another food-laden aisle, only this time dedicated
to cheese, including matured Pecorino wrapped
in walnuts, Norwegian Sognefjord geitost and
Tcherni Vit green cheese from Bulgaria. There's
no aisle for wine though - rather an entire area
with some 2500 different labels to choose between.
There's beer too. And vodka, whisky and a host of
local liqueurs it would be rude not to try. And don't
even start on the aroma of coffee wafting through
some parts of the hall.
Imagine the world's largest farmers' market
lasting five days, and you still wouldn't even be
close to the Salone del Gusto (the “Exhibition of
Taste”) - the flagship event in Turin by Italy's
Slow Food Movement. Having started as a local
campaign to stop a McDonald's being built near
the Spanish Steps in Rome, over the years the
Movement has grown into the world's largest
network of independent artisanal food producers.
This is their biennial get-together, where you
can meet a Tibetan farmer and taste his yak's
cheese; or inhale the intoxicating aromas of
Mexican Chinantla vanilla; or get a whiff of
the sea with carrageenan jelly from Ireland.
Everything you can imagine ever eating or
drinking, and much more.
The Salone takes place in October in the
Lingotto Fiere, the giant exhibition space
created from the former Fiat car factory,
and attracts 170,000 gourmets from all over
the world. As well as the aisles dedicated to
different foodstuffs and national cuisines, there
are lectures that are a far cry from those at
university. Book yourself in for a talk on the
history of Bourbon, and rather than falling
asleep at the back you'll be sampling six
different types of whisky while one of New York's
best cocktail barmen explains the story behind
such drinks as the mint julep and whiskey sour.
This being the land of the long lunch and

Need to know Turin has excellent rail connections
throughout Europe (see W www.bahn.de). Some
of the most popular dinners, lectures and tasting
events book up months in advance. See W www.
salonedelgusto.com for more information. For
details on Slow Food events in your own region or
anywhere in the world, go to W www.slowfood.com.

085 horSe-ridinG in tuScany

Much of Tuscany's appeal lies in its simplicity
of life: its isolated hill-towns, stone farmhouses,
cypress-lined vineyards and rustic cuisine. If you
don't want to break that spell by hiring a car to
get around, one solution is to tour the region by
horse on an eight-day riding tour with Equine
Adventures.
Guests stay at a restored eighteenth-century
farm estate in the hills between Dicomano and
the summit of Monte Giove, in the Rufina part of
the famous Chianti wine-growing area. Each day,
you'll explore the region on horseback, crossing
over the gentle rolling hills of the Mugello, along
the River Sieve and through the wilderness of
the Monte Giove National Park. En route, you'll
stop at local restaurants for leisurely lunches
then return in the evening to the estate, where
you'll dine on typical Tuscan cuisine, including
crostini di fegato (liver crostini), tortellini al
patate (potato-filled pasta), peposo al cinghiale