How to get around Bra

Bra is the easy one. After four hill towns reached only by car, this is a flat town of 29,466 people with a station.

In town: on foot

The Baroque centre is compact, level and arcaded, and an hour and a half covers Santa Chiara, Sant'Andrea and the squares between them. At 285 metres on the edge of the plain there is no climb involved, which makes Bra the accessible choice in this group — notably easier than La Morra at 513 metres.

To Pollenzo

Pollenzo, with the Slow Food headquarters and the University of Gastronomic Sciences, is a frazione inside the commune but it is not walking distance from the centre. Drive or take a local bus.

Arriving by train

Bra has a railway station with regional services, and this is genuinely useful: it is one of very few places in this corner of Piedmont you can reach and leave without driving. If you want to see the Langhe without a car, basing in Bra or Alba and taking day transport out is the only workable approach.

To the hills

A car. Alba is twenty minutes east; Barolo, La Morra and Grinzane Cavour around half an hour. There is no public transport a visitor can build a cellar day around, and the usual rule applies once you are in the wine country: settle who is driving before the first tasting.

Fog

One local hazard worth planning for. Bra is on flat ground and the Piedmont winter fog settles here extensively rather than in patches. From November to February, allow extra time for any drive and expect low visibility for the whole journey rather than a stretch of it.

How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?

Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.

Why Bra is different

Every other town in this batch requires a car. Bra does not, for the town itself: it is flat, compact and has a railway station with regional services. That makes it the practical base for anyone trying to see this part of Piedmont without driving everywhere.

In the town

The Baroque centre is level and arcaded. Santa Chiara, Sant'Andrea and the squares are within an hour and a half of walking at 285 metres with no gradient worth the name. Park at the edge and walk; the centre is partly restricted.

To Pollenzo

Pollenzo is within the municipal boundaries but a short drive from the centre, on the Tanaro. It holds the Agenzia complex — Slow Food's headquarters — and the University of Gastronomic Sciences, co-founded in 2004 and the first of its kind in the world. Both are working institutions without ticket offices; go to see the place, not to tour a facility.

By rail

Regional services call at Bra. For a car-free trip, Bra and Alba are the two usable bases in this area, and Alba is where the rail connections toward Turin and Asti concentrate.

To the Langhe

By road, and the distances are short:

• Alba — twenty minutes east. The market town, the truffle fair, the restaurants.
• Grinzane Cavour — about half an hour, with its UNESCO-inscribed castle.
• Barolo and La Morra — half an hour or a little more, best taken as one loop.

Once you are in the wine villages the usual rule applies: hire a driver, nominate a non-taster, or sleep where you are drinking. The ridge roads are narrow and unlit.

Winter fog, in detail

Bra sits on flat ground on the edge of the Po basin, and the winter fog here is extensive rather than patchy — unlike the hills, where you can drive up out of it. From November to February, allow substantially more time for any journey, use dipped headlights rather than full beam, and do not plan a tight schedule for a December morning. The drive east into the Langhe is the one that rewards patience, because you may climb out of the fog into sun somewhere around La Morra.