GTL | Tappa 2 - Cortemilia - Bergolo

Leaving Cortemilia, a historic village whose history today is linked to the hazelnut and which is the scene of a festival dedicated to it every year, our route heads in the direction of Bergolo. From piazza Savona, on the corner of via Cavour, take the tiny via Langhe and go up to the right. Cross the provincial road for Bergolo and take via Martiri di Bologna, following it on level ground up to an old farmhouse. Go up to the right and, after the blocks of flats, continue on the gravel road that goes up to the left. Reached a crossroads, continue to climb the path that is not very evident in the center which, with a long traverse, allows you to reach a grove. With a couple of steeper curves you gain a wide gravel road that climbs up to an asphalted road. Turn left, on the flat, for about 300 metres, to abandon it in favor of a dirt road that is not very evident on the right. After some terraces, continue on level ground up to a nice dry stone wall. After passing the next stream, you go up a steep stretch until you come out of the woods. You skirt the cultivated fields until you reach the courtyard of an isolated farmhouse, you avoid it to the right to come out at the curve of a gravel road. Follow it to the left for a few meters, then leave it at the bend and join a flat dirt road. At the next crossroads, turn left, keeping to the older route, for a nice flat stretch in the woods, until you reach a more obvious dirt road, where you turn sharply right and go along the entire amphitheater of the hill, in the past cultivated a vineyard. With a couple of bends you come to the beautiful Cascina Fontana and, on the now gravel road, you go along the crest of the hill. Neglect the first road (which goes up to the right towards Bricco delle Forche, where the ruins of the ancient watchtower are located), to go up to the center at the next crossroads, gain, turning left into a pine forest, the crest of the hill , marked by a wooden cross, and reach the remarkable Romanesque church dedicated to San Sebastiano, located in a splendid panoramic point, just above Bergolo. The village of Bergolo practically coincides with the whole village and, with not even 70 inhabitants, is one of the smaller than all the Langhe, also in terms of surface area. Always historically linked to the nearby Cortemilia, from which the Marquises also exercised their power over all the neighboring fiefdoms, it lost its castle already in the late Middle Ages. However, it retains an overall architectural unity, represented above all by the continuity of the building materials, which here are essentially made up of Langa stone. For this reason it has always been called the "Paese di Pietra". Over the last forty years, Bergolo has fought the depopulation that afflicted the more distant valleys above all with large investments in culture, which have made it a small oasis of art and music that has attracted tourists and investments from half of Europe. From the "Canté Magg" (the recovery of the peasant tradition of spring dances and songs) to the "Via del Sale" (contamination of contemporary art with installations as far as the sea), from the "Sapori della Pietra" (food and wine review on the artisan excellence places) to the many murals which, over the decades, have enriched the streets of the village with art, Bergolo has always shown itself to be much larger than it seems at first glance. Countries like Bergolo, ultimately, do not have to explain too much: just go up to the extraordinary cemetery church of San Sebastiano, a Romanesque jewel with still a few tombstones around it, a place that would have made Shelley happy, then look down at the nine stones of the brand new Memorial Ezra Pound to grasp the poetry that the Langa can offer to unhurried eyes, who know how to choose where and how to see.