GAL Basso Monferrato Astigiano Outdoor | GAL Basso Monferrato Astigiano Outdoor

10 routes that wind along the hills of Monferrato

The itineraries described here below allow you to discover environmental and cultural attractions, largely still unknown to most, able to dive the traveller into the deepest culture of places.

Here tastes, tradition and legends stay alive in the daily life and hearts of common people, revealing themselves to the walker step by step.

These 10 routes run on the hills of Monferrato, almost always very gentle but, sometimes, rugged: the “one hundred faces” hills, drawn and sculpted from the bottom of the sea that covered this area of Italy. The paleontological evidences of this very ancient sea are visible everywhere and collected in the Museum of Asti.

The story tooks us back in time, until 2000 years ago, up to the pre-Roman Age when, between the IX and the VIII century B.C, Liguri Tribes arrived in the Tanaro valley; they were a nomadic and pacific people, coming from the Southern France and devoted to sheep farming, that later merged with Celts.

The Romans left many traces of their presence, from the main roads (the Via Fulvia especially) to the place names, up to the selection of places where to found settlements.

But the Middle Ages especially, with the domination of Lombards, Frankish people and Barbarossa lastly, characterized the story of this lands. The legend of Aleramo, a valiant knight who became the first Marquise of Monferrato, ennobles the origins of Monferrato area.

Between the X and the XI century the first fortified villages were built and important noble local families established themselves on the political scene; there were tied, in a very variable way, to different powers, from the Municipality of Asti to the Marquises of Monferrato.

Few know Monferrato is the region of Italy with the highest concentration of fortresses, noble villas, towers and fortified towns, really because of the capillar fragmentation of powers, feuds and privileges in the past. The presence of Romanesque architecture of absolute excellence, proved by the Abbey of Vezzolano, and Baroque as well, always refined and sometimes prestigious, enriches these hills in a unique way, such as the spread testimonies of an ancient rural culture and a popular devotion.

Large part of towns preserves the defensive walls and the medieval castle or important and refined aristocratic residences, the result of restoration of the original fortresses.

Panoramic roads, winding along the ridges of the hills, open up to the Alps and the Appennines, while the rich net of routes connecting the hamlets allows you to enjoy landscapes that change continuously, cosy or superb, between valleys and slopes; during the seasons, colors change, among vineyards that give way to woods of oaks, poplars, hornbeams and acacia trees.

Among fields of sunflowers and “eight lines” corn, an ancient variety of unique sweetness and taste, is easy to meet a breeding farm of Fassone, the pregiate Piedmontese cow race, pigs, used to produce the famous “Cooked Salami” and other typical sausages, and capons, protagonists of fine local recipes.

Monferrato nowadays is famous all around the world for its wines too, for its food crafts, truffles and hazelnuts. And for its traditions and cooking as well.

“VIA DEI SANTI” ROUTE

START

San Martino Alfieri

FINISH

Cortandone

Stages
(with variations)
10

Stages
(with variations)
3

Total
length
46,51 km