Fall has officially started and together with lower temperatures, like every other year, in her bag she brought us the Slow Food Salone del Gusto and the Terra Madre convention. This is one of the BIG international events that fill up Turin with international visitors.
This year the Salone del Gusto is all around downtown making it a huge outdoor market with stalls and larger spaces for talks, presentations and workshops. All in all there are about 720 Terra Madre events that also happen in palazzos, museums and other venues scattered all around the historical Torino downtown.
As a culinary and production philosophy, it doesn't really surprise that Slow Food was born right here in Torno in the 1980s because, more than any other Italian region, Piedmont is even more resistant to change. This is one of our local paradoxes because historically, Turin has been the trend-setting Italian city and the one where the industrial, technological and fashion innovation started. However, like every deciduous tree, in order to grow many new branches full of leaves, Turin needs deep roots and everything happening in the kitchen and at the table is what soothes us all and turns our light bulbs up.
Biodiversity - Be diversity is the topic of this 2026 edition together with climate change as supporting protagonist of the ever changing world we live in.
Diversity, biodiversity and bioavailability is what keep us all alive as human beings and a society. Large international corporations have been pushing virtually every country towards monocultures and their GMOs seeds, but luckily the EU and Italy have been fighting back to protect our food and lives. Italy and France are on the forefront in the fight for good, clean and sustainable foods with the strictest food regulations in the world. After all food is culture, identity and medicine too
Speaking of climate change and the very hot summer that's just finished, the harvest in Piemonte started exceptionally early, we also lost a lot of water so our crops and rice have been suffering. So, wine producers are a welcome addition to this edition and Slow Rice shows how water, crops and food are all connected.
Besides the market, the presentations, the tastings and the workshops there is also an interesting exhibit about the food eaten by the astronauts during their space missions to show the trajectory humans and their food have followed from old traditional recipes and production methods to the space voyages.
For all of you who couldn't make it this year, please, mark September 2028 down for the next edition, plus the Slow Food Cheese event on September 17-20 2027 in Bra, near the International Snail Institute, the Slow Food University and the university for white truffle dogs - about one hour driving from Turin.
Speaking of white truffles, October and November are the 2 months to come over for them and our Piedmont royal wines.
If food, wine and festivals were not enough to convince you, remember that this is one of the best seasons to hop over to Piedmont to buy cashmere in our world's cashmere hub!
Picture yourselves taking a week-end trip from Turin: staying in a castle with a vineyard and visiting the world's most renowned cashmere producers. Some have been in business since the 16'00s and have a park or a museum to visit too.
Back in Turin, during the week, you just can't pass on a night at our royal theater for our classical music and ballet season!
Come and see for yourselves, amici: Turin will amaze you!
Email Lucia: turinepi@gmail.com
for your tours, classes, relocations and more!