Castiglione d'Asti

An Unhurried Hilltop Borgo

Castiglione d'Asti sits quietly on a Monferrato ridge, largely off the tourist circuit — a place that rewards those who turn off the main road and follow the signs uphill without a particular plan. The surrounding vineyards produce some of the territory's finest Grignolino and Barbera, wines that carry the character of the clay-and-sand soils of the ridge in every glass. The views from the hilltop extend across rolling vine-covered hills in every direction, and in spring, when the vines are just budding and the air is cool, there are few better places in the province to simply stand and look.

No particular agenda is required here. A walk through the borgo, a bottle picked up from a local cantina, and the landscape is the programme. The village is best visited in spring, when the new growth on the vines is at its most vivid, or in September at harvest time, when the whole territory smells of fermenting Barbera and the activity in the vineyards is at its peak. Twenty minutes from Bric del Vento, it is the kind of detour that improves any afternoon without requiring any planning at all.