In the Susa Valley with Mother Goose: a day in Almese

From the frenzy of the big city to the lively medieval square, set among the mountains and lapped by the cool waters of an Alpine stream. It seems like yesterday that the miners who extracted iron in nearby Rubiana walked the same little streets we walk today, once also populated by traders who frequented the Lanzo Valleys, and who now and then stopped to eat something in the square, a stone's throw from the wash-house on the Messa stream, where the housewives' songs echoed.

We are in the lower Susa Valley, in one of the first municipalities you meet going up the valley from Turin, in an area full of tourist attractions, including the Avigliana lakes and the Sacra di San Michele abbey. In the territory of Almese lies the Alpine route of the Colle del Lys, already frequented in pre-Roman times. The first ceramic finds in the area date back to the Iron Age, but it was in the Roman period that these places, situated on the road that led from Augusta Taurinorum, present-day Turin, into the Susa Valley, became important centres. One of the first monuments we visit is indeed the Roman Villa, in the Grange di Rivera hamlet, which belonged in the 4th century to a certain Calvinus.

Several centuries passed and the Marquis of Turin donated a considerable plot of land to the Abbey of San Giusto in Susa, including the “curtis” of San Mauro, where a church with a bell tower already stood, built on a rocky outcrop. From 1281 that place was transformed into a fortified village, a “castrum”, and the slender bell tower became the massive tower that is still among the municipality's main monuments. Fully 26 metres tall and built on seven levels connected by an internal staircase leading to its top, it stands out clearly visible even from afar, against the dark blue backdrop of the Alps. Today at the ricetto of Borgo San Mauro, restored in 2006, there is an exhibition space, home to cultural events.

During our walk we also visit several beautiful churches, the most important of which is the Church of Santo Stefano at Rivera, built in 1248 and later incorporated into the present Baroque religious building, completed towards the end of the 17th century.

We stay near this historic heart of the town for dinner too, deciding to stop at the Ristorante Pizzeria Mamma Oca, in via Rivera. We easily find parking in front of the place, and once inside we have the very pleasant feeling of being children again: around us are more than three hundred geese, small and large, yellow, white and every colour, smiling and curious, all come out of Mother Goose's fairy tales. Other geese, reciting passages from tales and poems, are even under the tablecloth, in the amusing colourful prints on the tables. Welcoming us with great warmth and kindness is the owner, Mr Antonio, who has run the restaurant with passion for sixteen years now, together with his nephew Mirko, who looks after the pizzas, all leavened for 24 hours and baked in the wood-fired oven. When we ask Mr Antonio to recommend the restaurant's best dishes, he replies: “Everything here is good.

I love to cook, and I do it with passion. The customer must be treated like a friend, and to a friend you always give the best things, even when they're just eating a simple plate of pasta or a pizza”. This care and attention have created an important bond with customers, one of whom, Stefano Luti, during a dinner even wrote a poem dedicated to the restaurant on a napkin. His lines now welcome everyone in the menu.

We start with a rich mixed seafood starter, and continue with first courses made with fresh homemade pasta, including tagliolini with salmon or lobster. All the fish is of excellent quality, and we also very much like the spaghetti with seafood and clams, as well as the Sicilian prawns. Some of us instead choose a tasty single dish with Pata Negra ham, with a side salad. We wash down these good things with excellent wines recommended by the owner for each dish: quality labels, some of them special. We also taste exquisite dishes of both fish and top-quality meat, including Chianina.

At the end of the meal, after delighting in the desserts, we also sample some 1935 cognacs, already thinking about the next occasion to come back here: perhaps to celebrate the birthday of our friend's daughter, or for one of the upcoming themed evenings. It will certainly be like living in a lovely fairy tale.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Pizzeria Mamma Oca Via Rivera, 56 Almese (TO) Tel.: 011/9350119