What to see
Itineraries and routes for discovering Asti and Monferrato
In Piedmont, a land dominated by the Baroque, this is a unique island of the Romantic, where churches, shrines and rural chapels are almost hidden from view, suspended in that aura of peace so typical of the monasteries and hermitages of central Italy.
Santa Fede di Cavagnalo, near Brusasco, seems far from the rest of the world. Perhaps linked to an abbey of Alvernia, dedicated to a martyr, more than any of the others it helps the visitors to trace the medieval relations between northwest Italy and France. Later reduced to a seed store, at the end of the eighteenth century it was acquired and resold to the Maristi Fathers who restored the beautiful tonal play of sandstone and red bricks to its original glory.
The road winds between proud, watchful villages until it reaches the free municipality of Montechiaro, military stronghold of the 13th century, as well as a Lombard dominion gifted as dowry by Gian Galeazzo Visconti to his daughter Valentina. Here, following the Versa river, one reaches the chapel of San Nazario with its sober decorated door, whose features closely imitate those of San Secondo di Cortazzone which, a few kilometres farther on, peeps out through rows of wines, flanked externally by arches and sculptures and decorated inside with carved columns that divide the naves.
Following the natural descent of the hill, almost by chance one comes across the Santuario di Castelnuovo Don Bosco, the fulcrum of great missionary projects and birthplaces of the founders of the Salesians.
Nestling in a wooded dale near Albugnano, where one can visit the restoration workshops of the Nicola family, one of the most skilful in Italy, the Abbey of Vezzolano is a rare blend of Romantic and Gothic, recalling artistic elements of central Italy. It’s an invitation to reflection which, legend has it, cast a spell over Charles the Great who, between 773 and 800, experienced a vision while hunting. This induced him to build a chapel, the nucleus of the present complex which still reveals many traces of French influence and features beautiful has-reliefs inside, the first taste of a meditative walk through cloisters, colonnades and splendid halls.