Under the hills of Monferrato, the stone remembers. Go down, read, climb back up.
“Welcome, wanderer. I am the Cantoniere. A lifetime spent cutting cantoni stone: the kind that holds up houses, churches and cellars in Monferrato, and that was once the seabed. In winter, when the vineyard sleeps, we go underground with a lamp and a pick.”The Cantoniere
Squares, arcades, the Cathedral with two bell towers, a castle and a theatre. All on foot.
Cella Monte, Vignale, Ottiglio, Grazzano, Moncalvo and the Sacro Monte of Crea. You need a car here.
What the narrator asks you. The answer, and the true fact behind it, is for you to find on the spot.
Under the arcades of Casale there is a bronze king on horseback, two and a half times the size of a real man. I have looked at him all my life and he still never tires me. One thing does not add up, though: he is not dressed as a soldier. Look at him closely.
The Cathedral is not symmetrical, and it is not ashamed of it. Two pointed bell towers frame it like sentinels. At the portal, two more figures stand guard, on two columns: a king and a queen. Can you recognise them?
Via Lanza smells of butter. A curved, crumbly biscuit was born here, and in Casale it is almost an institution. And its name comes from very far away.
Down here, in the tuff, the farmers dug out the rooms where the wine waits: small, dark, with no air moving. They are called infernòt. And yes, the name does not sound promising.
Pick your way: Casale on foot, the hills by car, or the whole walk.
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