Jim and Julia's agnolotti

Here's a second guest post by Jim Dunlop our proud Scottish friend and guest to Turin Epicurean Capital 2016 with his lovely wife Julia - proud Lancastrian.

You can read Jim's first guest post about how to pair Lake Orta with Piedmontese wines here. In fact, When they participated to the third edition of Turin Epicurean Capital, they both said that what really makes our regional food and wines unique is the landscape: our secret ingredient ;)

Take careful notes of the places they went for Julia's birthday, the specialties they enjoyed and the wines they savored!!

Interact with them on Twitter about their many interests, especially: Italy, art, books, Toro (soccer), wine and food!!

Jim: jimofayr

Julia: juliadarwen

Asti's Golden Pitcher

September is the month to be in Asti, Piedmont, NW Italy - the town where Asti Spumante the delish Italian bubbly wine is from, because there are many food and wine events culminating with the oldest Italian palio, in the third week-end (yes, older than the Siena one)!

The weeks before the palio there are: the Douja D'Or wine festival and the Sagra delle Sagre or Food Festival of the Food Festivals, definitely a name that resonates with many foodies:P

In the local dialect Douja D'Or indicates the traditional terracotta pitcher where wine was served, d'or means golden. This is a national wine competition that takes place every year for about 10 days in Asti and that awards the best Italian wines paired with the best local foods. 

Only DOC and DOCG wines can take part and Douja is a truly epicurean competition as the wines are submitted anonymously to the expert tasters who judge them for their sensorial qualities: color, bouquet and aroma. Only the top scoring wines are awarded the golden pitcher - Douja D'Or - a title approved by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies.

Reine's taste of Turin

Today we are sharing our friend Reine's guest post about her recent visit here in Turin and her fun itinerary!

Be warned: you'll want to follow her steps soon:D

Reine Dugas Bouton teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University.  She has taken students to Italy for summer study abroad for ten years and has published academic writing, fiction, and nonfiction. She documents her travels on her blog and Twitter account. 

She lives in New Orleans with her son, and her dog and cat too.

vida royal on the river

Today we'll tell you about the Turin's castles on or near the Po river: Villa della Regina or the Queen's Villa and the Valentino Castle in the Valentino Park.

Villa della Regina - Queen's Villa