Castles construction, witches serving mulled wine, monks offering food, competitions organized in a traditional way and omnipresent flavor of roasted meat (pigs rotating over the fire included). Alba immersed in Medieval time and all the city center changed completely the look. Event called il Baccanale del tartufo and il Borgo si rievoca – started on Saturday October 20th at night and finished on Sunday afternoon.

A mass of people was coming through narrow streets, a wide square Risorgimento shrank in the twinkling of the eye by the constant crowd – in a word it looked like all Alba and Langhe and Roero citizens decided to feast under the sky. And if you add tourists visiting Piedmont to take part in Alba International White Truffle Fair (Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d’Alba) that explains why this event attracted so many people.

One of many available dishes caught my attention – it was a sandwich with grilled sausage and sauerkraut. Sauerkraut in Italian it’s called crauti from German kraut, but because I’m Polish, it reminded me bigos (sauerkraut with meat, mushrooms and dried plums) and I was really delighted to taste in Italy Polish flavors I have already been missing…

Obviously, eating in a crowd is not a pleasant (and safe) experience, but fortunately numerous food stands were scattered over all the city center so I still managed to eat dinner without any problem.

Kids and adults willingly took part in different games – wine bottles or plastic ducks fishing, throwing rings to hit the target and many others. On Sunday there were mini concerts of traditional songs, too. And even though the crowd wasn’t smaller and parking the car was quite challenging, still it was worth it to eat lunch in Medieval Alba.