Piedmont Bed and Breakfast - B&B Profumi - Rooms for rent in a farmhouse in northern Italy

Piedmont Bed and Breakfast - In the Monferrato Hills, 20km from the mediaeval towns of Asti, Albi, Barolo, Barbaresco and Acqui Terme, this friendly farmhouse bed and breakfast offers holiday accommodation in the unspoilt countryside of northern Italy.

The rooms are furnished with restored pieces of furniture, and all have wrought iron beds, TVs, private balconies and bathrooms, as well as a great view. Bed and breakfast for one is €60 per night, €65 for two guests in a double room. Extra bed is €25. An apartment is also available for families. If you book for six days, the seventh is free. If two adults stay for a week, one child stays free. The breakfast includes sliced, cheese, pizza or focaccia, cakes and biscuits made in house, honey, jams.  Guests may also use the kitchen and bikes.

The farmhouse 'Profumi' is named after the intense aromas of the local white truffles, a speciality here; you can even join truffle hunts with an experienced truffler and his dog. Other holiday attractions include visits to Asti and Alba, and the nearby spa towns of Agliano Terme and Acqui Terme. Or you can simply walk in the lovely surrounding countryside. Our accommodation is 1 hour of driving from Turin, the mountains or the sea. Depending on the season, you will be assailed by the scent of roses, broom, lavender, oleander, lime trees and a host more. The courtyard of the house has a picnic area with a pizza oven and barbecue, so you can enjoy al fresco meals. During the Autumn the typical scent is that of the 'grey diamond' the precious truffle of Alba.

Food and wine feature heavily in Piedmont. The area also produces asparagus, and is the home of both Italian red wines such as Barolo, and of sparkling wines, with Asti the centre of the Italian spumante trade.

There are many annual festivals, reflecting the history of Piedmont, and the close relation between the people and their land; many of the events also reflect the obsession with food here. On the first weekend each May you can enjoy the historical re-enactment that is the Saracen Asparagus Festival. The last weekend in August sees the Wine Festival, and in Asti on the first weekend of May, the grand Fiera Carolingia (a mediaeval fair) is based around a market which pulls in a host of itinerant stallholders. In July there is a national review of contemporary and avant-garde drama and cinema, then in the first week of September comes the wine and gastronomy festival: Le Sagre. But the best way to get to know Asti is the Palio, a traditional horse race held the second weekend of September.

On the first weekend in June, Nizza hosts La Corsa delle botti, and in Canelli each June there is a historical re-enactment of the Canelli siege, based on an episode during the Monferrato wars of succession. In October and November nearly all the nearby small towns (as well as Asti and Alba) hold truffle fairs.

Alba is well worth exploring. An archetypal Italian mediaeval city, this town centres on a core of red-brick towers from the Middle Ages, with later Baroque and Renaissance palaces and cobbled streets completing the picture. These streets are lined with the gastronomic and wine shops that serve the Piedmontese passion for food and wine, and there is a fine cathedral: the late-Gothic Duomo lying on the Piazza Risorgimento. The main street, Via Vittorio Emanuele, is a delight for the nose as well as the eye. The busy shopping street has piles of Alba produce on display: cheeses, truffles, wines, mushrooms, as well as the traditional nocciola, a gooey nut-and-chocolate cake. And around Alba the Le Langhe Hills provide fine walking and driving, clad as they are in orchards and vineyards.

Asti meanwhile has become synonymous with Italian sparkling wine. Near here you'll also find the fine Romanesque abbey of Albugnano, the astonishing grand synagogue at Casale Monferrato (the area was once a haven for Jews escaping persecution in Spain) and of course the rejuvenating spa waters at Agliano Terme and Acqui Terme. Nearby you'll also find the village of Vinchio, the birthplace of the writer Dadide Laiolo, and where you can visit the Baroque church.

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Piedmont offers a holiday packed with enticing towns and beautiful countryside, great food and great wines. Find out more by clicking below.