Spicing Up Your Winter Travel

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White truffles are foraged by truffle hunters, unearthed by their expensive dogs in the dark predawn hours. By early December the truffles are still in high season. You will see the lovely lumps on the city's main drag, Vittoria Emmanuel, where cheese-shop windows display truffles the way that Harry Winston's shows off jewels — and the truffles are almost as expensive. You probably won't be buying any to take home because they get moldy rather fast. But you are here to eat as many as possible, and Alba is a good first stop.

A convenient place to stay is the Hotel Savona. Though Spartan, it's in the thick of the city. Build up your appetite on Saturday morning walking through the street market that snakes through the town center. Here you will find everything from suits and shoes and leather to sexy wool underwear. While in Alba, you will want to tuck into the most popular wine bar, VinCafe, for lunch or late-afternoon coffee or wine. For a casual truffle dinner, I'm fond of La Liberia, which serves the homey food of the region and is one of the few places in the entire region where you can order a salad as well as typical risotto Piedmontese with a blanket of truffle shavings.

Along the road from Alba to Asti, a must stop is Elena Rovera's organic cooperative, Cascina del Cornale, for lunch or dinner at the restaurant and take-home goodies in the store. The restaurant serves up flavorful cuisine, mostly to locals but also to a few intense food hounds who have somehow heard of Rovera. Everything served is grown, produced or foraged (as with the truffles) by the members of her cooperative. Rovera is also mother hen to many local organic-wine producers who are not well known but top-notch. Ask her to set up some visits for you.

If the need for a spa calls, head to the Hotel Relais San Maurizio in San Stefano Belbo. It will take 25 minutes from Alba. This luxely transformed old monastery in the middle of vineyards has crisp linen sheets, a Caudalie of Bordeaux, France, Vinotherapie Spa and one of the finest restaurants in the area. Da Guido recently moved into the hotel's subterranean quarters — renovated, vaulted-ceiling wine cellars — from its previous home in Asti. The cooking is elegant in its simplicity. Perfectly memorable were the chunks of cardoons (a close cousin of the artichoke) punctuating a puddle of potent, artery-clogging fonduta, and the dish is covered with, you guessed it, shavings of truffles.

Biking Through The Bush in Style
If you're going to eat your way through your vacation, you may as well get some exercise too. Since 1966, Butterfield & Robinson has been hauling bicycle enthusiasts around the globe. The company made its name in Burgundy, France, and has expanded to include two dozen countries. What's more, it does it in luxury, creating trips that are cushier than a padded bicycle seat. Its South African excursion is a great escape from the winter blues in the U.S. South Africa's summer is our winter, and temperatures in March are about 77° for the highs and 57° for the lows — perfect for biking.

It's also the perfect time for the prewine harvest, when produce is peaking. You'll discover that South Africa's chefs have the freshest of raw materials to play with. And you might even lose a couple of pounds, since you'll be able to bike from 14 to 50 miles a day.