A rainbow of aromatic emotions.. My visit to Cavaglià, Piedmont region, Italy

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Take a piece of the ancient Via Francigena in the footsteps of the pilgrims to Canterbury they travel to Rome and then to the Holy Land: This was the idea that led us to Cavaglià, village situated between the large countries of the low Biella. Besides the curiosity to see some religious monuments, in our decision to stop just Cavaglià, to be honest, we were guided by a project more ground, and innocuously sexy. We discovered that there exists a characteristic nineteenth-century mill, Cascina Molino Torrini, now a farm, from which grow many kinds of herbs, peppers and more, with which the dishes are served from the house.
After a short walk on the shores of beautiful Lake Viveash, so we are back in the near Cavaglià where we made our trip back in time, starting from far away, even from the Iron Age. Yes, right here because this is a very large archaeological site of menhirs or megaliths of monolithic, probably the largest in the Piedmont. And with regard to religious destinations in the country you can see many very beautiful churches, like the Church of Our Lady of Babylon, from elliptical and Renaissance style, the eighteenth-century parish church of San Michele Arcangelo, in which it holds a valuable body of the nineteenth century, and the Oratory of San Rocco. The Oratory, round shape, it was rebuilt in 1744, to vote cavagliesi to St. Roch, protector from plague, as a result of a terrible epidemic that at the time she attacked his cattle.
But as I imagine, in Cavaglià historic buildings are not the only works of art: the nature that we found at Cascina Molino Torrini is a masterpiece. Everything is born from the passion of the owner Enzo Nicolello and his wife for the perfumed oils. Together they have turned this place into an open-air collection of herbs, wild herbs, but also chillies, gourds and ornamental amaranth. Together with Enzo and his beautiful dog Silver went to discover the magical world of the House of crops. The first stop was the Essenziario: scented throughout an area which is part of the very large fields of a farm, and in which grow many types of special herbs, vegetables, old and unusual. "These crops are carried out in the open field and they aim to preserve and re-evaluate these essences. In these gardens there are 28 varieties of rosemary, 32 varieties of lavender, 43 varieties of thyme, oregano, 27 varieties, 24 varieties of sage and mint, 42 varieties of basil, to name only the most important, "explains Enzo. This is a collection of herbs and wild only in Italy, and to make it known, even for educational purposes, the House is organizing, from spring onwards, several theme days for schools and tourists, days during which an expert explains the characteristics of plants, crops and the visit will taste the typical dishes of the country tradition, served with wood grown and harvested here. But in the exhibition as well all'Essenziario, there are two hundred kinds of peppers. From the red and yellow species most familiar to us, until the peppers Indonesian blacks, big and small, long, thin, or cherry shape: it is really amazed by this spectacle of nature.
And speaking of "open mouth", our dinner was clearly on tradition Biella and make it special were the very essence of the House. We started with four appetizers, including the pink sausage and bacon with herb focaccia hot, the lumberjacks tomini fried with straw, corn salad and balsamic glaze, salted vegetables and strudel with sautéed porcini aglina grass and chervil. After this palette of flavors, we continued with cappellacci lean and borage alpine butter, mixed with sage and poppy seeds, and as the second, quails diabolical crust of herbs. We washed down with fine wines in bulk as Erbaluce, Barbera and Freisa, crowning a Bavarian dinner with cranberry sauce and sweet mint and basil limoncino.
Before starting on the way back, we made another short walk near the mill, and we could not resist the temptation to stock up on bags of freeze-dried herbs and jars of passes, eggplant in olive oil, honey, teas and jams, all the tasty goodness that will make us days before returning back here to learn about the cultivation of the House.

Frances Bertha