ALBA, Italy — Tucked into the northwest corner of Italy bordering the alpine regions of France and Switzerland, Piedmont suffered for centuries as little more than a through route for armies on their way to the richer spoils of Rome, Venice or Florence.

Modern invaders behave little differently, and the autostrada is full of families nose-to-tail at top speed on their way south to better-known Tuscany, missing out on Piedmont’s distinctive beauty.

They should pause south of Turin, where a range of long, low and broad hills gives the region its name of Langhe, meaning “tongues” in the local dialect.

Country roads wind gently alongside the rivers on the valley floors, and there’s scarcely a single high point without its castle or fortified palace towering over a hilltop village of ancient brick.

The town of Alba, a slightly overgrown version of these hilltop villages, is best known for the white-truffle fair started in 1929 by a local restaurateur, Giacomo Morra. He renamed the tuber tartufo bianco d’Alba — the white truffle of Alba — so putting the name of his previously little-known hometown into the mouths of gourmets worldwide as often as the truffle itself.

The fair, held through October and early November, has grown into the region’s biggest draw. Of 10 types of truffles found in Italy, the tartufo bianco d’Alba is by far the most prized, and unlike the more common and widespread varieties of black truffle, no one has yet succeeded in cultivating it.

As a result, the white truffle’s market price is double that of the black, and eager truffle hunters use dogs to search the local hillsides and sniff them out near the roots of certain trees. Visitors can go out on daytime demonstrations, but true truffle locations are kept secret.

The market itself is held under canvas in the courtyard of an ancient church, where the air is richly scented by scores of local products stacked high on various stalls, with samples freely handed out.

Visitors with glasses of local wine weave from stall to stall, trying salami, cheeses and a delicious, flour-less cake made from a plump local hazelnut called the tonda gentile delle Langhe — round and nice, from Langhe.

But before the truffles area can even be reached, their pungent, oily aroma creeps around the corner.

The truffles themselves look undistinguished: small, yellowish nuggets carrying traces of the earth in which they were found, looking like the droppings of some mythical woodland beast. Buyers sniff enthusiastically at the evanescent mix of mushroom, honey, garlic, hay and earth.

Local restaurants all have special white-truffle menus for the season, although the tuber is never cooked.

At the Enoclub restaurant beneath brick arches in an ancient basement that was once the wine cellar of the Morra family, the waitress shaves slices of translucent thinness directly onto a dish of fried eggs, instantly adding complexity.

The heady odour must be quickly experienced directly through the mouth and nose to be fully understood.

At up to $400 per 100 grams, it’s the smell of money.

Access

For more information on travel to Piedmont visit the Regione Piemonte website at www.regione.piemonte.it/lingue/english.

For details of Alba’s annual truffle fair visit www.fieradeltartufo.org.