29 October 2022
We arrive in Alba after a tour of the Langhe, a magical place where the different shades of green – in the autumn period – are tinged with yellow, orange and brown. We make a stop at the Beppe Fenoglio Study Centre, in Piazza Rossetti, and discover that this building once housed the butcher’s shop and the home of Beppe Fenoglio, the famous writer, partisan, translator and playwright whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year, which took place right here, in this town suspended between past and present, but well organised with the future in mind.
We walk along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which everyone here affectionately calls ‘Via Maestra’, and amidst more or less interesting shops and the omnipresence of truffles and other delicacies, we arrive in Piazza Michele Ferrero, a native of Alba like the confectionery giant of the same name. Here, in the square that used to be called Piazza Savona, a ‘surprise’ awaits us: an enormous, almost 13-metre-high statue in bronzed stainless steel. It is the image of a little girl in the act of turning around in a posture that is anything but swaggering, but ‘genate’ – as they would say in these parts – that shy and bashful attitude, typical of the Piedmontese/langhetto that never bothers, discreetly attracting attention.
