Heading to Piemonte late October/early November, Tentative Itinerary

Some people like to look at the itineraries used by tour companies. Adventures with Sarah has a Piemonte tour.

Sounds lovely. What are the plans for Alba--I assume you are picking up a car as you depart Torino?

Jules, I've looked at the various hosted tour itineraries, but they tend to be too rushed, ie, 1-2 nights max in most of the stops. Tauck is an example-they are covering more ground in a week that we plan to do in twice that, but it is helpful to look at their waypoints as possible stops for our own trip.

Valedelphia, I have nothing specific yet for Alba, but since the Truffle Festival is based there, we will likely sign up for a cooking class as one activity. I am fine with renting a car, so long as the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, ie, hassles with parking and avoiding the various ZTLs, vs. freedom to tour the surrounding area without having to hire a guide or rely on public transportation schedules. For wine tasting, my preference would be to let someone else do the driving, but if we base in an agriturismo in the countryside, then we will need a car for our dinners unless we find a place with a decent half board option. So I guess the sohort answer is that a car rental decision will come after I have a more specific idea of how we want to spend our time.

I think I am still basking in the afterglow of using the Swiss train network on our last trip-it was incredibly easy to use and took us literally everywhere we wanted to go with minimal effort, and that was without a AIO pass (just the half fare card). I realize that will not be quite the same with the Italian train network, but that will be the trade with regard to renting a car, ie, does the extra effort pay off in easier access to our trip objectives.

I was not sure if you were going to coincide with the festival, but that sounds like great fun. I just wish the chocolate factory offered tours--we could smell it throughout the town!
I think you will definitely want a car, though for wine tasting you may not end up using it. I did a brief visit to the area just to check it out without one, and we really regretted not having the car.

I second the motion to do a chocolate factory tour! I tend to agree with that-since the public transportation network in the Langhe is nothing like what we experienced in the rural parts of Switzerland, any activities not within walking distance would require either a car or a private guide that could also provide transportation. That seems easy to find (although pricey) for wine tastings, but I'm not sure that is the case for general sightseeing, partly because i have not yet looked into it.

With regard to our last stop, a key consideration is that our last stop have a reasonably easy airport transfer option. Our flight departs MXP at noon, so if we have a rental car, we could drive ourselves to the rental office and drop off the car without having to get up at the crack of dawn. I am also looking at Milan, which might be the easiest option of all-we would have the most options with regard to activities and sightseeing, and arranging for airport transportation is likely to be much easier from Milan than any of the other towns or cities.

We loved the Truffle Festival and Alba in general. i would adjust my dates to accommodate a visit but note that there is a big festival around that time that packs the town for a long weekend.

As far as the wine tour, we used Evan Byrne and will hire him again this summer. PM me for more info.

Our start and end dates are pretty much cast in concrete (at least without a major upper in cost), so all we can do for flexing dates is to change the order of destinations. We land in Torino just after 6 PM on a Thursday - the train to Alba is around 90 minutes (not interested in driving there after a 9 hour time zone change and 15+ hours in the air and in airports), so our baseline plan is to apwns the first 3-5 nights in Torino, then either take a train to Alba or drive there after renting a car in Torino. If we limit our Torino visit to 3 nights (which is 2 full days), we could head to Alba on a Sunday, which might be advantageous for festival activities-I found the calendar for last year's festival, which listed classical concerts each Sunday during the festival, so that is an option worth considering IMHO. I like the idea of beginning in Alba, then returning to Torino by train to continue our trip, so I might look at switching to a flight with an earlier arrival time to make it feasible to take the train to Alba on our arrival day.

I got lucky and found good fares for dates earlier in October, which I think will help with the weather and other aspects of the trip. We now have a total of three overnight stops: 6 nights in Torino, 6 nights in La Morra and the last three nights in Pavia. The number of sights, day trips and activities in all three destinations easily exceed the time we have allocated, but that just means we have a good excuse for a return trip! Here is my notional plan for each:

Torino: 6 nights/5 full days
City sightseeing: Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama, Egyptian museum, Basilica of Superga, Automobile museum, Cinema Museum, Museum of Risorgimento, Lavazza Museum (I have some work to do to organize these into a logical plan).
Day trips (a subset of this list as time permits): Sacra di San Michele, Pinacoteca Agnelli, La Pista 500, Reggia di Venaria, Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi, Cuneo, Susa

La Morra: 6 nights/5 full days (we will be in La Morra over one of the Truffle Festival weekends)
Explore La Morra (arrival day), wine tasting, walking tour of Alba, walking tour of Asti, hike day somewhere in the Langhe, Truffle Festival activities

Pavia: 3 nights: 2 full days
City walking tour (arrival day), day trip to the Oltrepo, day trip to Cremona

I feel pretty good about this plan: It minimizes the number of overnight stops (which we prefer) without giving up on sightseeing and activity options, plus we can adjust our objectives as we proceed and add or drop sightseeing objectives as our interest and energy levels dictate. This plan is also less ambitious (and likely more achievable) than the others I had considered that included other regions (Val d'Aosta, Liguria, Lakes Orta/Maggiore), so it is more in tune with slow travel, which seems appropriate for the region we will be spending our time visiting.

While researching sights and activities for our visit to Torino, i ran across a web site that lists several heritage trains throughout Italy (Fondazione FS Italiane). Two in particular caught my eye: one that runs between Torino Porta Nuova to Nizza Monferrato (an atmospheric village in the Monferrato region), and a second one that runs between Novara and Vallaro Sesia (location of the Sacro Monte di Varallo, one of seven sacri monti in the Piemonte). Has anyone here taken either of these heritage trains? I like both, although they are on consecituve days of our time in Torino, so we would likely extend our stay if we decide to do both. Also, the Sacro Monte di Vallaro departs from Novaro at 9 AM, so we would need to take a train from Torino to Novaro (and back) for this day trip. Anyway, if any fellow forum members have info on either of these trains, please let me know.