Albergo dell'Agenzia, Bra, Italy

The pace: Lift fork to mouth. Lower. Lift glass and sip. Repeat.

The place: Italy's Slow Food movement, that ambitious return to fresh food in a McDonald's world, got its start at the Albergo dell'Agenzia in the Piedmont town of Bra. And it's no wonder. The rumpled hills of northern Italy produce the taste of pure terroir in abundance: wine, cheese, truffles, escargots, and chocolate. The Albergo dell'Agenzia's neo-Gothic campus includes a Michelin-starred restaurant and a wine bank with more than 800 varieties to sample. Get ready to brag to your locavore friends back home about the provenance of the inn's foods, including hazelnuts harvested from the nearby hillsides and pheasant that were just trotting around the velvety grounds. Over a dinner that lasts longer than most feature films, you can follow the egg en cocotte and white truffle with Fassone veal in a pastry crust and end with panna cotta served with pears soaked in Moscato. Luckily, there are also 47 rooms to stumble back to.

Albergo dell'Agenzia
Pollenzo, Bra, Italy
Rooms from $180

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