Monforte d’Alba

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I saved three photo filled posts from Europe to share in the dead of winter to feed your wanderlust. Today we are exploring Monforte d’Alba, a tiny Italian village nestled in the hills of Piedmont. When we checked into our hotel in the nearby Pollenza, the staff recommended that we go to Monforte d’Alba, and when my friend Ryan recommended a restaurant there we had the perfect reason to pay a visit.

We arrived in Monforte d’Alba an hour before the restaurant opened for dinner, so we had an opportunity to explore the village before the sunset.

This church was towards the bottom of the hill.

And this church was on the highest part of the very steep hill.

Pink house, blue shutters – can I move in?

Piedmont is basically a series of small towns built on hills. You can see the next town over in the distance here.

If one thing about Monforte d’Alba stood out, it was the amazing doors on the homes! Check them out…

By the time we were done exploring, it was time to head over to Saracca for dinner. Sarracca is a housed in a series of buildings that date back to medieval times. The skeleton of the restaurant, the walls, appear to be unchanged. Modern updates, in the form of staircases and glass floors creating upper levels, have been made.

We started off with drinks in the wine bar. The fun thing about the wine bar is that they have a happy hour with serious snacks. The space quickly filled up with locals. It seemed like Saracca is a community meeting place.

When my friend Ryan saw my instagram post indicating that I was at Saracca, he told me to go to the bathroom on the first floor. That is perhaps one of the weirdest messages I have received. I didn’t bring my camera to the bathroom because that seemed strange, but I wish I had. The bathroom had a solid door, but glass walls that revealed the building’s original architecture. It’s really hard to explain, but it was the coolest bathroom I have ever seen.

Eventually we were brought to a table upstairs. The lighting was really challenging upstairs, but I thought that this photo shows how the restaurant combines new and old architecture. The space is tall and narrow, and a metal staircase is in the middle, and small platforms on either side of the stairs have one or two tables each. The design is really beautiful and unique, Saracca’s website shows it off well.

We shared a salad – I kept joking that we were going to end up with scurvy since vegetables were hard to come by at the restaurants in Munich. Then Charles had a pasta with a meat sauce and I had a mushroom risotto. The food was solid, but the space and romantic atmosphere stole the show.

If you are visiting Piedmont, you should take the time to walk around Monforte d’Alba and then swing into Saracca for happy hour. You can stay at Saracca too.