The Langhe and the Monferrato
Vine hills listed as world heritage, with a castle on top of each one.
Between the Tanaro and the Apennines lie three areas of hills that resemble one another and are still distinct: the Langhe south of Alba, the Roero on the other bank of the river, and the Monferrato further north, towards Asti and Casale. Since 2014 they have been Unesco heritage together, as a wine-growing landscape.
They were among the poorest land in Italy, and those who wrote about them, from Beppe Fenoglio to Cesare Pavese, did not sweeten them. The change came with wine: from the nineteen seventies the nebbiolo of the Barolo and Barbaresco hills turned villages of a few hundred people into international destinations.
What there is to see
The villages are small and very close together: Barolo with the Falletti castle, La Morra with its viewpoint over the hills, Serralunga with its tower, Grinzane Cavour, Neive, Monforte. Alba, the centre, is where you go for the market and the truffle fair. In the Monferrato there are the infernot, cellars cut into the stone, themselves Unesco heritage.
Campsites here are very few, and anyone wanting to stay will find farm guesthouses instead. It is two hours from the lakes and an hour and a half from Turin: a full day out, and better not on an autumn weekend, when the roads clog up.