Casale Monferrato, in the province of Alessandria, is located an hour's drive from Turin, Milan and Genoa, in an extraordinary land with two Unesco Heritage sites (the wine landscapes with their infernots and the Sacro Monte di Crea).

Casale Monferrato, a city in short list among the candidates for the Italian Capital of Culture 2020, has an inestimable heritage of Baroque, Romanesque (with the narthex of its unique Cathedral in the world) and a Synagogue considered among the most beautiful in Europe, and has a lot to offer also from the point of view of food and wine traditions.

The Civic Museum and the Monferrato Castle often host temporary exhibitions.

Casale Monferrato is also the ideal starting point for discovering the beauties of the area, starting with the splendid castles of Monferrato. Also not to be missed is a guided tour of the infernot, the underground wine specula dug by subtraction in the canton stone (jargon called tuff), a unicum of this territory, which together with the wine landscapes earned it the designation of Unesco Heritage in 2014.

The Ecomuseum of Pietra da Cantone in Cella Monte, a town that has been included in the list of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, is also worth a visit.

In March, the Regional Exhibition of San Giuseppe is traditional. In spring, "Riso e Rose in Monferrato" awaits you, the largest inter-municipal event in Italy involving many municipalities of Monferrato, with horticulture, art, music and culture, food and wine, events for children and families. An opportunity for "slow patrols" among flooded rice fields and vineyards, baroque castles and palaces, Romanesque churches and tuff farmhouses.

But the Monferrato offers opportunities to be visited throughout the year: in September during the harvest, in autumn with fairs and market exhibitions linked to local products, to suffer from the truffle; at Christmas with the nativity scenes in the Borghi.

Photo: of Georgius LXXXIX - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,