The best gravel rides around Roccaverano

Little-trafficked road with a beautiful panorama.

The phrase “The door of care is of abundance” is not a very common Italian proverb, so it can be interpreted metaphorically or spiritually.

In the ancient gateway of "puntet", where the village walls once stood and the market square opened, there is a rather unusual work: the "Bunt Topatoo ak Khéwuel" gate, created in 2021 by the artist Adinkra. The name means "the gate of care and abundance". The gate incorporates two symbols from the West African Adinkra tradition: the cola nut (representing power, wealth, and trade, in relation to the Salt Road that passed right through here) and the Aban, which depicts a castle or fortress and evokes protection and security. It is an intervention that may surprise in a medieval Piedmontese village, but it has its own logic: the artist wanted to reconnect Monastero Bormida to its past as a commercial crossroads along the Salt Road, using a visual language different from what we are used to in these hills.

The Castle of Monastero Bormida was not originally built as a defensive structure but as a Benedictine monastery, founded around 1050 by monks from the Abbey of Fruttuaria, called by the Aleramici Marquises to reclaim the lands devastated by Saracen raids. The 27-meter tower still visible today was originally the bell tower, and the river flowing a few meters from the southern tower confirms the non-military nature of the building. In 1393, the Benedictines abandoned the monastery, and its feudal history began: the fief passed to the Del Carretto marquises, who in the 15th century added the first defensive structures, transforming it into a castle. The building is a quadrangular structure with an internal courtyard, protected by towers on multiple sides and connected to the former bell tower by a small suspension bridge. On the south facade, there is a two-arched Renaissance loggia with a small stone column. Inside, the rooms on the main floor—transformed in the 17th century—feature mosaic floors and sail and cross vaults with frescoes of floral and geometric motifs. The castle later passed to the Della Rovere family and subsequently to the Genoese Polleri family, finally becoming the property of the Municipality starting in 1880. Today it is open to visitors and is part of the regional circuit "Castelli Aperti".

Rocchetta Palafea, in the province of Asti, is an ancient medieval village founded as a military garrison in the Belbo Valley, with documented origins dating back to around 960. Dominated by its characteristic quadrangular tower and surrounded by ancient walls, the town was an Aleramic fiefdom and then a Genoese one, preserving a historic atmosphere linked to its past as a fortress.

Ecclesiastical building kept in perfect condition

Truly a delightful little village.

The ROMANESQUE BRIDGE dates back to the 14th century. Through the characteristic Vicolo del Droc—where one of the city gates once stood and where the entrance to an ancient oven can still be seen—you reach the Romanesque bridge over the Bormida River, still in use. It represents one of the most interesting works of medieval civil engineering in the valley, and its counterpart, in Spigno, is the similar bridge at the Abbey of San Quintino. Both were built by Benedictine monks. It is a massive humpbacked structure with four spans. The Monastero bridge was the only one passable year-round from the lower valley: Acqui did not have one.