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Slow & Silent Touring In Piedmont
Words by Andrea Albertazzi / Photo by Andy Williams
Uprooting ourselves from habits is not easy. And let’s face it, it’s not even natural. Thinking about taking our own beliefs, the same ones we have cemented for years and tearing them up by virtue of a leap into the unknown, is something against human nature. Yet we are attracted by the dark half of the plate, by the hidden side of a way of existing that could actually hide satisfaction and not the presumed disappointment we hypothesize. Electric driving is not exactly what I would recommend – at least not with the current state of infrastructures and charging queues – especially to make the most of your precious free time. Behind the scarecrow of calculations on average range, however, lies the possibility of savoring the territory in an even more intimate way. This is why in reality there are exceptions that make an electric road trip the best choice you can make for a weekend away. I can hear the rustling of my thoughts, the rolling of the tires that advance more slowly than usual while for once my conscience is not frowning at me as I interrupt the silence and quietness of nature. That weekend spent across Piedmont’s finest area – Langhe – has remained more impressed on me than usual and precisely because roaming with zero emissions has given me the opportunity to savor every little detail. The stops, more numerous than usual and never characterized by the on/off of the internal combustion engine, have made me discover hidden sides of a route that I thought I knew by heart. And then corners where you can pull over, get out and breathe deeply the scent of freshly cut grass carried by the wind. Those distant noises, of the farms and their farmers in full swing, ready to welcome tourists coming here from all over the world. The peace of the senses, outside and also inside the cockpit. All amplified by the absence of a running engine two steps away from me.
Hop on board again. I get back behind the wheel and with the window completely down I try to see every color of a landscape that knows how to take your breath away, almost enveloping you in the embrace of its orderly hills surmounted by those unmistakable villages. Everything that is commonly defined as “slow” must be savored, in the ultimate search of a quality that can be truly understood and appreciated provided that the predisposition towards it takes all the time needed for a journey of emotions. In automotive jargon it can almost seem absurd, especially when you do everything possible and impossible in the quest for maximum performance. Not today. Today we travel through a postcard landscape in a “slow” and even silent way, so as to let the soundtrack of these kilometers be told by the nature that surrounds us and by the wonder that invades us mixed with a sense of inner peace that I have never felt in my life. I stop once again and enjoy the majesty of a place where nature and human seem to coexist, enhancing each other. I don’t miss speed, much less the melodious sound of a nice petrol-powered engine. I’ll get back to that tomorrow. Today I don’t really need anything else and while I enjoy a sunset too beautiful to be shared with anyone and perhaps interrupted by sappy words, I sit silent with new awareness that I couldn’t have had a similar experience if not with an electric car that puts aside those elements that usually tend to place the driving experience above the involvement offered by the scenery. Not a noise, just a hiss. And the warm heart of a romantic solitary traveler.
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