Alba - Giorno 4

It's Saturday which means it's market day. Now, when Mario told us that the Saturday market was big and basically took over the town, he wasn't exaggerating. In fact, as soon as we walked out our door, there it was. I think you know I might just have squealed a little.



It's not just one market - it's four markets.

You've got the market that takes over the main streets, which sells everything - from batteries to socks, then you've got the market that occurs during the week
















and you've got the real farmers market which on saturday is much larger and you can even buy live poultry - a laying chicken only costs 5 euro!




There's also slow food sponsored "Alba Earth Market" which sets up in Piazza Pertinance overlooked by the lovely Church of San Giovanni Battista.







This really is market heaven.

We couldn't spend too long here as we're returning to Bra for Day 2 of Slow Cheese and today we have some taste workshops booked.

Once again because they are photo heavy they have their own posts which you can find here:
Taste Workshop LCH07 - Roquefort: The King of Cheese
Taste Workshop LCH10 - On the Verge of Extinction: Alpine Beaufort
Taste Workshop LCH12 - Giarolo's Bounty

We should have stayed in Bra for another class but frankly neither one of us really could be bothered - while the workshops have been interesting enough, the organisation has left us frustrated and that jerk photographer just makes it impossible to sit comfortably. What is even more stupid is that they have no provision to realocate our tickets - we're not interested in a refund, it just seems a waste that someone else couldn't use our ticket.

We're a little deflated when we return to Alba and it appears we've missed something while we've been away





ohhhh, look at the lovely old cars.

Unsure of what to do for dinner tonight, we wander past La Piola to see if they might have a table. As we approach, we notice we're not the only ones trying their luck - the last of which leave with a very sad face. As we're already in the building, we ask anyway and unbelievably, they somehow conjure one up for us.

Maybe we looked a little sorry for ourselves but it ends the day on a high especially when we get to enjoy such a great meal at La Piola.