Yeah, Right…

It’s that time of year again.  You’ve had the huge Christmas Day meal.  Boxing Day leftovers have been eagerly devoured.  One glass of Port more than was wise has been dispatched.  Waistbands feel tight, heads foggy, the festive hats of yesterday more jaundiced than jaunty with the festivites over.

And now the weekend newspaper supplements start arriving, a subtly censorious tone guilt-tripping you inexorably down the path to New Year resolutions…: how to choose them; how to keep them; are they good for your stress levels?; should you make any, and if so, how many should you make?

No matter where you get your news, current affairs, sport, culture, lifestyle and any other titbits, open a page in the run-up to December 31st and somewhere there will be an article urging you to reform your ways, to make next year the year you ring the changes.  New Year, new you!

Contrary to what this article in the ever-cheery Guardian would have you believe, however, even I know the answers to those last two questions above are easy:

Yes, and 1 respectively.  And here it is:

The Only New Year Resolution You Really Need Is This:

Visit Piemonte.

And there really is no time like the present.  You’ll no doubt find those same weekend supplements full of winter travel ideas.  ’10 Best Winter Getaways’ or ‘Readers’ Favourite Winter Escapes’.

These are all well and good.  And yet they never feature Piemonte.

Which is almost criminally negligent really.  I mean to say, while truffle lovers and their oenological counterparts know about the region, and descend in numbers during September (to see the harvest) and October (to see the harvest and sample the Tuber Magnatum Pico) winter is rather barren as far as foreign visitors go. 

Shame, since truffles such as the one shown here, are generally better later in the season.  And that season lasts until 31st January.

By my reckoning this makes a New Year visit to Piemonte the perfect resolution: it’s something to look forward to in the darkest days of the year, it’s easily achieveable, very enjoyable and you get to sample the food and wine of the Langhe at their peak. 

Without the number of tourists you would have encountered in October.

Or the higher prices for accomodation.

What’s not to like?

The weather is cold, muggy, foggy, humid, perhaps icy, you say?

Why, sit inside by a warm fire eating your handmade pasta with white truffle and drinking a Cru Barolo or Barbaresco or one of any number of other world-class wines.  Or just drinking with a friend or two…

What’s Not To Like?

So why not make just that one New Year resolution, and keep it?  You know it makes sense…You might even see the Matterhorn!

Get Yourself Over To Piemonte!

Doesn’t have to be before January 31st, of course, unless you really have to have white truffles.  Just book your trip and I’ll see you here in 2025!

Wonderful food and wine awaits, and lifelong memories are waiting to be made!