Ep. 2523 James MacNay IWA and Cinzia Long from MacNay Travel & Wine | Wine, Food & Travel with Marc Millon

So the main thing for us was to give a flavor of the not the Alps that everyone imagined. So everyone imagined the the the Alps like higher hiking, but we wanted to go through vineyards and apple orchard, and it's exactly what we managed to do. So starting from the main city of Aosta, you just walk through beautiful vineyards and apple orchards, and then you reach the highest, vineyards in Europe, which is the one of the Prie Blanc in, Maugier. So and reaching Courmayeur at the end. So you start from Aosta, and, after seven nights, you reach Courmayeur. Fascinating people with stories to share, fabulous wines and the best local foods to accompany them, and beautiful places to discover and visit. All of this and more on wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Millan, on the Italian wine podcast. Join me for a new episode every Tuesday. Welcome to wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, we travel to Piedmont to the Western Alps not far from Torino to the small commune of Torre Pelice to meet my guests, husband and wife team, James McNay, IWA, and Cinzia Long, who own and run a specialist travel company that offers walking and wine tours in Piedmont, Valle D'Oste, Liguria, as well as throughout Italy. James and Cinzia, prior to moving to Piedmont, lived and worked in East Sussex, England, where they founded and ran Cuocolo cheese and wine, a popular retail outlet that specializes above all in Italian wines as well as an outstanding cheese counter that Cinzia oversaw. James and Cinzia, many thanks for being our guest this morning. How are you both today? We're very well. Thanks. Yeah. Very well. To be here with you. Good. Well, nice to see you, James. I'm not sure when we last met, James. Was it at Vin Italy, maybe? I don't think we've seen each other since then. I think it was. Yeah. By coincidence, we happen to get seats next to each other on the plane going out. Yeah. That's right. That was that was amazing. Yeah. Okay. Well, first of all, for our listeners who are located, as you know, all around the world, can you tell us where you are? Can you describe this beautiful corner of Italy under the Alps where you decided to move to start the next chapter of your lives together? Yeah. So we live in a quarter of Piermont, Piermonte, which is in Northwest Italy. And we live in the valley of the the Western Alps called the Valpolice, which is named after the river Pelice. And, specifically, we've we live in the town of Torre Pelice. And Torre Pelice is, one of those old Piantontese towns whose history stretches back hundreds of years. And Cinzia's family is originally from here, and she still has family here. That's the reason one of the reasons that we live here, just to be close to the family. We have a young son, so it's good for him to be close to his relatives as well. How old is your son? He's 13 now. Yeah. Okay. He's taller than me. Big lad. Uh-huh. He's called Carlo. So when when we were planning our move from England to Italy, we decided we wanted to be close to the to Cinzia's family for that reason. And the town is nestled in a a valley of the Western Alps. You mentioned Turin, and that is indeed the nearest large city, but we're actually closer to the French border than we are to Turin. So you are in the Western Alps, and I'm just thinking that when some of our listeners have been to Alba, to Barolo, to the Barolo wine zones, and looking across, you can actually see the snow covered mountains of the Western Alps, stretching out. It's a beautiful area. It's an area I've explored a little bit, both for skiing, but also, in search of cheese. A little bit further down from you, Castel Magna cheese. But we'll talk about cheese in a in a little bit more detail, Cinzia. Tell us your story then, Cinzia. You're from Piedmont, but you grew up in Valle d'Osta. Is that right? Yes. Absolutely, Mark. So my parents were born here in a house in Torre Pellice, but then for working reasons, they moved to Valle d'Aosta before I was born. So, basically, I grew up in, I don't know if you know Cervinia, where there is the Matterhorn. So I grew up at the foothill of the Cervino, specifically in Val Thurnace, which is the main, village because it's not a town. And, yes, I absolutely loved it. I loved skiing and, winter, the snow, and the summer, hiking. So, therefore, my passion for nature, for even cheeses because I always loved cheeses since I was little and, all that. That's why I studied forestry in Turin University. Okay. So you were probably skiing almost as early as you could walk. Yes. Actually, they put the first skis the way you know, the plastic skis. I put them when I was two. Oh, my goodness. Two. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Valle D'Oste, it's such a beautiful region underneath really, really tucked on underneath the mountains. And I know that some of your walking tours take in this special area, so we'll talk about that a bit too. James, you were teaching English in La Spezia. I met one of your students last week, Matteo Bonannini. And what brought you to Italy in the first place? Just chance, really, Mark. I didn't choose to come to Italy. When I finished university, I wanted to travel, and I needed to to earn some money while I did that. And the obvious thing that presented itself to me was to teach English as a foreign language. So I did my qualification and happened to be offered a job in La Spezia by an agency that posts teachers all over the world. And the moment I arrived, I was absolutely smitten by it. It's a city at the head of a a a beautiful gulf, the Gulf Of Poets, as they call it, because Shelley and Byron lived there. And Shelley indeed died there. And I spent a lot of time in the cycling, walking, and just, generally visiting. So it's an area that's very close to my heart. What, what did you study? English and history at university. In English and history. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. In Bristol. That's similar similar to me. And so you came to La Spezia. I I hadn't been to La Spezia until last week, and, indeed, I was only there really passing through on the train, but I was up in the hills. I think it was Corniglia with, Walter de Bate, Looking down on La Spezia and looking down on the coast leading down to Porto Venere, and that coastline, of course, being an extension really a far end of the of the, with the trains connecting so easily from La Spezia. But it did look a beautiful city, an historic city, a city that, of course, was once very important economically with the Arsenale and the ship repair of ships. So still quite a a big city. Yeah. It is a historic city, and it's, it's an important port. It has a a a mercantile port and a merchant port and, still has a military port. And in fact, Jinsea's dad did his military service back in the what would have been fifties, in La Spezia, and it remains, an important military naval base even now. And it's one of those cities that just a a really bustling city. People don't necessarily go there for a holiday particularly, but there's so much going on. You can really get some under your skin, and, and it's it's a really fine place. I I enjoy going back there. Yeah. I I I just had a good feeling in the brief time that we were there, and it is somewhere that I think would be worth exploring. How long were you there for, James? Just one year. And, Cinzia, did you meet James in in Las Betzia? No. Actually, I met him afterwards because we were both working in the tourism industry. Because, of course, I grew up not only so I studied forestry, but I grew up in a touristic area. So even before I finished university, I was already working for the tourist consortium and for the tourist office. So the tourism is in my in my blood and is what I like to do, connected to nature. And that was in Valletta? Yes. It was. In Cervinia, and then I worked as well at the I don't know if you know the Rifugio Capana Margherita, the highest managed hat in Europe. I've heard of that. Yes. I