Where to eat in Piedmont during La Vuelta

Sabaudian tapas and sangria with Brachetto, Vermouth and Ratafià. Traditional Piedmontese cuisine takes on a Spanish twist to celebrate one of the most prestigious and demanding stage races in world cycling. The Vuelta a España 2025 for the first time starts from Italy, from Piedmont. The route will involve 136 municipalities across the provinces of Turin, Biella, Vercelli, Novara and Cuneo with four entirely Piedmontese stages. The first stage, 189 km, kicks off on Saturday 23 August from the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale, with the official start, kilometre 0, set in Turin at the Motovelodromo, in front of the monument dedicated to Fausto Coppi, a tribute to the sporting and cycling tradition of the city. From Turin the race crosses the area of Ivrea, Biella, the Vercelli region, the shores of Lake Maggiore and on to Novara. On 24 August, the second stage, 160 km, runs from Alba through Cuneo province, finishing in Limone Piemonte. The third stage, on 25 August, from San Maurizio Canavese to Ceres, covers 135 km. The fourth and final stage, 207 km, on 26 August goes from Susa via Exilles, Cesana and Claviere, before crossing into France.

Where to eat during La Vuelta

This is also an opportunity to celebrate the encounter between Piedmontese food and wine traditions and Spanish ones. The Piedmont Region, in collaboration with the Vuelta a España 2025 and the Associazione Cuochi della Mole, has created an ideal menu, a mix of flavours and stories, from aperitivo to tapas, from the famous paella to desserts. A menu designed to inspire different restaurants. The aperitivo is the Sangretto, a Piedmontese reinterpretation of sangria, with Brachetto wine from Alto Monferrato, Turin Vermouth and Ratafià from Biella, plus peaches from Borgo d’Ale, orange juice, apples, lemons and fresh mint leaves.

Then the Sabaudian Tapas revisited with typical local products: tapas with Robiola from Cocconato and extra virgin olive oil from Almese in the Susa Valley, tapas with anchovies in bagnet vert with escabeche sauce, tapas with potato tortilla and truffle, tapas with cheese cream, honey and crushed Piedmont Hazelnuts PGI. Turin breadsticks are a must, flavoured with special flours and in the colours of the Italian and Spanish flags. The absolute star of the menu is the Padella Piemontese, a local version of paella which retains the spirit of the Spanish dish but speaks Piedmontese: Carnaroli rice and frog legs from Vercelli, grey rabbit and yellow and red peppers from Carmagnola with traditional bagna cauda, peas from Casalborgone, Robiola from Cocconato, oil from Almese, Piedmontese green beans. To finish, churros made with meliga (maize flour) served with zabaglione ice cream flavoured with Passito di Caluso and gianduiotti.

Dishes in Vuelta style… but Piedmontese

In Turin from 23 to 26 August, the two restaurants Ibéricos on Via Goito 9, a Spanish-inspired venue run by Luigi Iula with chef Luca Briamonte, and the historic San Giors by Simona Vlaic with chef Giulio Carlo Ferrero, in the heart of Porta Palazzo on Via Borgo Dora, offer a special revisited paella: Carnaroli rice, grey rabbit from Carmagnola, Bra sausage, red and yellow Carmagnola peppers, green beans, crayfish, accompanied by aioli and a light bagna cauda, and Piedmontese sangria with Brachetto.

Right next to San Giors, at the historic Torrefazione Roma, you’ll find the sanguis (Turin version of the sandwich) with anchovies in bagnetto verde and escabeche sauce, accompanied by sangria made with Ruchè. The Piedmontese-Spanish menu is also featured at Cantine Risso, a classic piola on the Po (Corso Casale 79), under its leafy pergola, offering Sabaudian tapas with the Sangretto, and tapas reinterpreted in an Italian-Spanish key also at Bacalhau on Corso Regina Margherita 22, reimagined by chef Fabio Montagna: fried squid with Giaveno potatoes, Piedmontese potato tortillas, and the bocadillos di Torino.

Anchovies and jamón

The restaurant Guarini, in the street of the same name just a few steps from Porta Nuova station, proposes a themed menu by chef Luca Varone: Cantabrian anchovies by Sanfilippo with garlic butter and bagnetto verde, plin in Iberian ham broth, risotto creamed with Robiola, Patanegra lard and hibiscus, and secreto of Patanegra served with smoked butter and peach jam, plus a platter of jamón and lomo accompanied by vermouth. Spanish-style cuisine with tapas and typical recipes can be found at the restaurant Serranos on Via San Massimo 11 and at the pizzeria Flegrea on Corso Massimo d’Azeglio 114, a classic Turin spot, with a special “Italy-Spain” pizza with buffalo mozzarella PDO, Iberian ham, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil.

A stage strictly in theme at Velò, the bistro of the Motovelodromo on Corso Casale, which will broadcast live the stage of 23 August, followed by a “red” dinner on the historic track (Paella & Sangria at €25). Grand finale with a free live concert by Cane Vecchio Sa-Und, a “cycle-musical” band created by Luca Gregorio and Riccardo Magrini, together with Moreno Moser, commentators for Eurosport Italia of the great cycling events.

A menu of tapas

In Novara, the finish line of the first stage on 23 August, the new restaurant Bollicine on Corso Cavour 12 will take part in the menu proposed by the Piedmont Region, between paella and Sangretto. Limone Piemonte, second stage finish on 24 August, offers a packed calendar of events, including the photographic exhibition dedicated to Celestin Camilla known as “Lapin”, the redemption story of a boy from Niella Tanaro in Cuneo province who emigrated to France, started as a bakery apprentice and became a cycling champion winning two stages of the Vuelta, along with a tapas menu served all day in central Via Roma and at Chalet 1400 where the riders arrive.
The third stage starts from San Maurizio Canavese with a true gem: the Michelin-starred restaurant La Credenza offers, on a large outdoor table in the piazza, with a few extra Iberian touches, the dish with which chefs Giovanni Grasso and Igor Macchia earned their star in 2006 (today the kitchen is led by Ivan Onorato and Chiara Patracchini, an outstanding pastry chef): Risotto creamed with peppers, with parsley chlorophyll and Cantabrian anchovies.

The final stage finishes in Susa, in the valley of the same name towards France. At the Osteria Ristorante La Marchesa on Via Montenero 4, which is also a pizzeria, the “Pizza della Vuelta” is inspired by the colours of the Spanish flag, red and yellow, with courgette flowers, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, stracciatella. A Spanish-Piedmontese Vuelta that also unites at the table in the name of flavour.