Monferrato

Monferrato is the broad hill country of eastern Piemonte between the Po and the Tanaro, a landscape of Barbera vineyards, wheat terraces and castled ridgelines whose vineyard landscape shares the UNESCO inscription of 2014. Less celebrated than the neighbouring Langhe but hardly less beautiful, it offers ancient abbeys, sacred mountains, underground wine cathedrals and hand-carved infernot cellars.

Why visit

Monferrato offers the Piemonte hill experience with more elbow room: the same noble wines — Barbera above all, plus Grignolino, Ruché and Freisa — grown on wilder, more characterful terrain, and villages where the visitor is still a novelty. Its sacred summit at Crea belongs to the UNESCO-listed Sacri Monti; its towns hide engineered marvels from the age of faith and of wine, from the subterranean cathedrals of Canelli to the bottle-cellars cut with bare hands from a soft local stone. Cyclists have adopted these roads for good reason — they are quiet, demanding and endlessly scenic. Come for a weekend of wine and castles, and stay for the sense of a landscape still shaped by the people who work it. The cooking runs deep here too — bagnet verd and bagnet ross, agnolotti del plin, raw milk tomme and hazelnut desserts — served in village trattorie where the menu changes with what the hills give.

Character and history

The name descends from the Aleramici, the medieval dynasty whose marquises ruled these hills for centuries and planted the Christianity, castles and vineyards that define them. Sanctioned devotion and working agriculture intertwine throughout: at Crea, a Marian sanctuary revered since the eleventh century was joined in 1589 by twenty-three chapels on the model of Varallo, forming one of the great devotional landscapes of the Counter-Reformation. The same civilisation carved the infernot — lightless, ventilation-free chambers cut into the soft Pietra da Cantoni marl, maintaining the steady cool that lets fine bottles sleep — while in Canelli, nineteenth-century producers sank vast cathedral-like cellars into the tufa to mature sparkling wines in the dark. Both traditions feed into the UNESCO recognition of the Piedmontese vineyard landscapes, which embraces the Monferrato hills alongside the Langhe and Roero.

What to see

The spiritual centrepiece is the Sacred Mount of Crea, its 23 chapels climbing through woodland, with sculpture by Moncalvo, the Prestinari and, from the great early twentieth-century restoration, Leonardo Bistolfi; at its heart stands the Sanctuary of the Assumption of the Virgin, pilgrimage goal for a thousand years, wrapped in the protected woods of the Crea Nature Reserve. Below the sacred hill, the wine country hides its cellars: the Infernot of Cella Monte, introduced by the Ecomuseum of Pietra da Cantoni, and the wider Infernot Circuit linking the villages where these chambers survive. Castles punctuate the ridgelines — the monumental nineteenth-century Castle of Cereseto, dubbed the queen of Monferrato, and the rebuilt medieval stronghold of the Castle of Gabiano with its historic park. In the southeast, the Underground Cathedrals of Canelli open their vaulted depths to visitors, and the Church of Saints Vittore and Corona at Grazzano Badoglio keeps the millenary cloister and the tomb tradition of Marquis Aleramo himself. In Nizza Monferrato, Palazzo Crova — Palace of Taste turns an eighteenth-century palazzo into a multimedia introduction to the region’s flavours.

How to experience

Monferrato is made for slow touring. Drive or cycle the ridge roads between hilltop towns — the Gran Monferrato area’s promoters maintain a whole programme of gravel and guided rides — and stop for tastings of Barbera d’Asti and its neighbours at village cellars rather than rushing between big names. Book the infernot visits in Cella Monte, which run by reservation, and reserve ahead for Canelli’s underground cathedrals; both are working heritage, not always open. On Crea, guided visits and a free UNESCO app let you take the chapels at your own pace — chapel 23, the Paradise, opens only by appointment. Autumn is the region at full power; spring brings extravagantly green hills and empty roads.

Practical planning

The area is easiest by car, roughly an hour from Turin, Genoa or Milan; Asti makes a good rail gateway. Distances are short but roads are sinuous, so plan two or three anchors per day. Accommodation leans toward winery stays and village B&Bs; book well ahead for harvest weekends. Museums, infernot and castle openings are irregular — check the ecomuseum, sacrimonti.org and producer sites before travel, and carry cash for small-village cellars.

Nearby places

The hills shade into great gateway cities: Casale Monferrato on the Po with its cathedral and synagogues, Asti with its medieval towers and palio, Alessandria on the plain, and the thermal town of Acqui Terme to the south.