Langhe, Roero and of course Monferrato: among the wine hills of Piedmont this territory cannot be missed, which follows the Apennine belt and extends in the direction of the Po, immediately after Liguria. Near Cairo and Cà Brichella there is in particular the so-called Alto Monferrato, which essentially occupies the southern part of the province of Alessandria. A landscape made of rolling hills, imposing castles and small villages, winding roads to travel without haste and vineyards as far as the eye can see, specialized in the production of great wines, such as Gavi, Brachetto d’Acqui and Dolcetto d’Ovada.
From Cairo Montenotte, continuing along the Bormida di Spigno, you first encounter Dego, which stands at the confluence of the Rio Grillero with the Bormida river, and then Piana Crixia with its small stone center and the famous "mushroom", a round stone of approximately 4 meters in diameter supported by a column of debris shaped by erosion. A few kilometers lead to Spigno Monferrato, the southern bastion of the Alessandria area, an ancient village built on a hill overlooking the Bormida valley from above: noble palaces, sculpted sandstone portals, loggias and galleries, alleys and small squares make Spigno one of the most interesting areas of Alto Monferrato.
Acqui Terme is a fascinating spa town already in vogue in Roman times (the impressive remains of the aqueduct can be seen from that time). The sixteenth-century Palazzo Robellini houses the Regional Enoteca (with all the wines of Piedmont, but particular attention reserved for Brachetto); from there you can walk along the pedestrian Corso Italia (not without having glanced at the church of San Francesco) and arrive at the Civic Tower and Piazza della Bollente, the true symbol of the city: a natural spring of hot water (flowing at over 70° C) salt-bromine-iodine. Also worth seeing are the remains of the Roman theater and the Cathedral of the Assumption, which preserves the Triptych of the Madonna of Montserrat and a delightful Romanesque-style crypt.
From Acqui there are two alternative routes. Going North West you pass Alice Bel Colle (a pretty village of medieval origins, from whose tower the view extends 360 degrees, from the vineyards to the Apennine valleys up to the Alps) and you reach Nizza Monferrato. There is no shortage of reasons to visit this lively Monferrato town: the Campanone, the civic tower incorporated into the town hall; the beautiful historic center with prestigious churches and buildings; Sugar(t), the museum that combines art and the entrepreneurial history of the Figli di Pinin Pero company, one of the main Italian sugar companies. And then the food and wine: the wines of course, but also the Gobbo Cardoon, an excellent agricultural product protected by a Slow Food Presidium.
The road towards the South East connects Acqui Terme with Ovada: a road full of truly spectacular castles, worthy of the best fairy tales. We start from Visone , founded before the year 1000 (the remains of the city walls still visible date back to the 11th century): the castle retains the section of the walls with the Gothic access gate, ruins of the palace and above all the slender fourteenth-century crenellated tower. Cremolino boasts the highest castle in Alto Monferrato (450 meters above sea level): very well preserved, it has a quadrilateral layout with four lateral towers and still retains the characteristic drawbridge. Walking through the village, between a visit to the parish church of Nostra Signora del Carmine and the fifteenth-century Carmelite convent, one can also imagine meeting Orson Welles: the great American actor and director passed through Cremolino in 1947, to meet Ubaldo Arata, then a of the most popular directors of photography. The third castle along the road, Molare Castle, is of great visual impact. Built in the sixteenth century, it was modified several times to become a noble residence, until the last intervention of the architect D’Andrade in the nineteenth century, who gave it the picturesque (and neo-Gothic) appearance that it still has. Molare is a good starting point for some walks: towards Cremolino for example (on the so-called Via del Giro al castello) or towards what remains of the dam, whose failure in 1935 caused over 100 deaths between Molare and Ovada.
Linked to Genoa for many centuries and only becoming Piedmontese in the nineteenth century (when it entered the Province of Acqui), Ovada is a town of over 10 thousand inhabitants, an important agricultural and wine centre, known above all for its Dolcetto. It has a beautiful historic center in Ligurian style: painted houses, narrow alleyways, dotted with stately palaces and religious buildings. The Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Conception was built by the Capuchin Fathers on 21 September 1631 in the hope that the city would be freed from a terrible plague epidemic. The parish church of the Assunta dates back to the end of the eighteenth century, with its two bell towers dominating the historic center. Ovada is also known for its cultural liveliness: evidence of this are the Torrielli Theatre, the Rebora music school (which carries on a long tradition) and the Maini paleontological museum, which houses the fossils and minerals discovered in the area.
