Activities and experiences Places to visit

Serralunga Castle

Serralunga takes its suggestive name from its position: a little group of houses languidly extended on the ridge of a hill suspended between north and south, as really would be a long greenhouse able to protect with its particular microclimate first fruits and products unavailable elsewhere.

The important enological tradition brought the name of this so small town on the tables all around the world, but the wild nature of this area, close and a little bit harsh is visible today in lines and furrows that dig wineyards and faces of people. And this is perhaps the charm of Serralunga: his reluctance to indulge voluptuous to lure tourist, his stubbornness to want to stay away from coated papers of tour operators, to offer its true nature, severe and pure, only to those who will discover, along with loving patience and devotion to every little groove, and every wrinkle, of its ancient walls.

The castle is unique in Italy, about its architectonic structure: is a French Donjon. This building performed in the territory, more than a military role, a function of local production activity control, as its own extremely slender and uptight demonstrate to underline in this way the Falletti family’s prestige. The “Salone dei Valvassori” is the principal room of the castle, characterized from the beautiful panelled ceiling. The Salon is decorated from mid-XV century frescos of the votive chapel that represent the martyrdom of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, to the near wall, San Francesco surmounted from the Agnus Dei symbol. Free entrance.

Grinzane Cavour Castle

The Castle of Grinzane Cavour rise in one of the most picturesque landscape of the Langa, at 5 km from Alba. The imposing construction, realized around the central tower dated during the first half of the XI century, is admired in all its beauty thanks to the renovations began in 1960, on the occasion of the first centenary of Italy Unification.

In the Castle is located the Regional Piedmonts Enoteca “Cavour”, constituted in 1967, it’s one of the first in the Region. It’s a prestigious showcase of the best selected wines and grappa of Piedmont, first of all, Barolo and Barbaresco.

The exposed wines are for sale and they’re combined with the most important products of the region. There are also publications about food and wine and printed glasses for Barolo wine. Guided wine tastings are available.

Barolo Castle (Wimu)

Barolo has, in fact, not one castle but two, the Castello Falletti (the communal castle) and the Castello della Volta. The first is located in the city centre, the second, a few hundred meters away as the crow flies, on the ridge that runs from Novello to La Morra, by way of Vergne. The two castles, in fact, face each other, and both belonged to the Falletti family.

The position of the Castello alla Volta gave it the more strategic importance. The magnificent location of the Castello alla Volta, easily seen from Barolo, is not matched, unfortunately, by its current state of disrepair. It can be reached by the road from Barolo to La Morra and it currently belongs to a Barolo winery.

Inside the Falletti Castle is the Wimu, wine museum. The tour, designed by François Confino, guides the visitor from the third floor of the castle down to basement, a descent in a world of knowledge made by paintings, pictures, light games, mythology and history.

The University of Scientific Gastronomy in Pollenzo

The Roman city of Pollentia (Pollenzo) was founded in the Second Century b.c.

The university was founded in 2004 by the international non-profit Slow Food in cooperation with the Italian regions of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, is a ministerially recognized, private non-profit institution.

Its goal is to create an international research and education center for those working on renewing farming methods, protecting biodiversity, and building an organic relationship between gastronomy and agricultural science.

The result is a new professional figure – the gastronome – skilled in production, distribution, promotion, and communication of high-quality foods. Gastronomes are the next generation of educators and innovators, editors and multimedia broadcasters, marketers of fine products, and managers of consortia, businesses, and tourism companies.

UNISG students, hailing from around the world, gain dynamic experiences in artisanal and industrial food production, thanks to complementary education in both science and humanities, sensory training, and hands-on learning during study trips (field seminars) across five continents.

To date, approximately 900 students have studied or are studying at UNISG.

The Gipsoteca in Santa Vittoria d’Alba

A place dedicated to art and talent, absorbed in landscape and history, watched by the imponent castle and the tower, linked to Confraternity of San Francesco.

The Gipsoteca of Santa Vittoria d’Alba symbolizes the meeting point between the artistic talent of sculptor Gioachino Chiesa and scenic beauties of the area.

The exposure is renewed and lives of the works with which the author enriches it: from figurative to abstract, move through different and innovative tecniques, until the design, Chiesa, versatile and tireless, give his energy to each piece. White plaster figures, burnished bronzes, shepes in pink marble, pictures and designs welcome the visitor to leave an expressive message to those who can catch it.

Gioachino Chiesa, born in Santa Vittoria d’Alba, self-taught, dedicated all his life to the sculpture. He is knight of the Republic for artistic merits and from 2005 his name is linked to Santa Vittoria d’Alba for his permanent show by the municipal Gipsoteca and to the monument to the fallen of all wars (1967).

San Francesco Church in Santa Vittoria d’Alba

The one that today is known as San Francesco Church was established from time immemorial as the home civil assumed, then the seat of the Contraternity “sancti spiritus de sancta uitoria”; there is the evidence in a bequest of year 1225 in favour of the institution, collected in a registrum filled in 1441 by the then Prior Odino Capello.

It was situated super porta solani, that is over the door that went to the villa, and the powerful tower at the South East corner maybe was its defensive bulwark; documents of the period reported this location adding that it was used pro reponendo de feno, whose rent was paid in kind with wine or performance of work for the Confraternity.

The building enclose a precious serie of frescoes representing scenes of the passion of Jesus Christ developped for over 34 metres on three sides of the nave, dating from around mid-year “500, by an unknown author.