How to get around Alba

Alba divides cleanly into a town you walk and a region you drive, and the second half is where visitors go wrong.

In town: on foot

Alba is a valley-floor town and flat, which makes it the easiest centre in this rollout to walk. The cathedral, the towers, Via Vittorio Emanuele and the truffle market are all within ten minutes of each other, and the historic centre is largely pedestrian or traffic-restricted. You do not need a vehicle inside Alba and will not enjoy having one.

In the hills: a car, and a plan about drinking

The Langhe have no public transport network a visitor can build a day around. Buses serve the villages for residents, on timetables that are not designed for cellar visits, and the ridge roads are narrow, winding and unlit. Everything worth seeing — Barolo, La Morra, Grinzane Cavour, the Barbaresco hills — is fifteen to thirty minutes away by road.

This is a wine region, so settle the driving question before you set out. Either hire a driver for the day, or choose one estate within walking distance of where you are sleeping, or appoint someone who does not taste. Tasting at three cellars and then driving a ridge road at dusk is the characteristic mistake here.

On foot and by bike in the hills

The Langhe are crossed by marked paths and farm tracks, including the Sentiero del Barolo which starts from La Morra. Walking is the best way to see the vineyard landscape and is legal on the tracks; the rows themselves are private working crop. Cycling is excellent and genuinely hard — these are steep hills, not rolling ones.

Arriving

Alba has a railway station with regional services, and road connections to Turin and Asti. For most visitors the practical approach is to fly to Turin and drive.

How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?

Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.

The shape of the problem

Alba is the transport hub of the Langhe and the Langhe have very little transport. Plan on the basis that the town is walkable and the region is not reachable without a vehicle or a driver.

In Alba

The historic centre is flat and compact — ten minutes end to end — with pedestrian and traffic-restricted streets through the core. The cathedral, the tower-houses, the shopping street and the truffle market are all inside that circle. A car in the centre is an obstacle rather than an asset; leave it outside and walk.

Into the hills

Distances are short and times are long, because the roads follow the ridges:

• Grinzane Cavour — the closest, a few minutes south-west, castle visible from the road.
• Barolo and La Morra — twenty to thirty minutes into the Langa of Barolo, and best done as one loop rather than two trips, since they are ten minutes apart.
• The Barbaresco hills — north-east, on the other side of the Tanaro valley.
• Bra — about 20 km west, and a different landscape: flatter, Baroque, and the home of Slow Food.

The drinking-and-driving question, in detail

It needs stating plainly because the whole point of the region is wine and the whole geography is unlit hill roads. The workable options are:

• Hire a driver for a cellar day. This is the standard arrangement in the Langhe, the local firms understand exactly what is wanted, and it costs less than the wine you will buy.
• Base yourself in a village and walk to one or two estates. Several of the Barolo-zone villages have serious producers within walking distance of their own square.
• Nominate a non-tasting driver. Cellars are used to this and will hand that person water and something to eat.

Walking and cycling

The hills are crossed by marked paths and farm tracks and this is the best way to experience the UNESCO landscape. The Sentiero del Barolo runs from La Morra through the vineyards — the municipality names the trail but publishes no length for it, so treat any distance you read elsewhere with caution and ask locally. Stay on the tracks: the vineyards are private property and a working crop, and harvest machinery uses the rows.

Cycling here is rewarding and physically serious. The gradients are real and the descents are fast on narrow roads with blind bends.

Arriving and leaving

Alba has a railway station served by regional trains, and the road network connects it to Turin and Asti. The usual approach for visitors from abroad is to fly to Turin and hire a car, accepting that the car then has to be parked and not driven on tasting days.