GTL | Stage 16 - Feisoglio - Niella Belbo

After passing the village on asphalt, take the first (signposted) fork to the left, along a road that soon becomes a dirt road and continues to the right. We climb a little more into the woods, then come out on the flat, watershed between the valleys in the open field. The marin, sea air will ruffle our hair, filling our nostrils with Mediterranean aromas.

After about 2 km, we turn left and, after a short descent, immediately right, almost "U-shaped," again on crushed stone, to take us back between vegetable gardens and fields to the scenic ridge. Continue to the next asphalt road where you pull straight to the "Esplanade of Love," which is not a meeting place for couples, but the memory of a medieval legend with the good knight Leo (you are indeed on Mount Leo) who fell in love with the local peasant girl; this place was precisely the scene of their love. Which, by the way, proves the tastefulness of medieval troubadours in choosing locations! The plan, indeed, opens to the four winds and is embellished with a giant bench by designer Chris Bangle, which allows even more appreciation of the 360-degree landscape.

The church of San Giovanni, in severe Langa stone, stands out at the last fork in the road to descend gently to the right over the village of Niella Belbo.

Niella shares with the other villages on the right slope (with the notable exception of Cravanzana, however) the destruction of the castle during the 17th century. Despite the loss of the fortress, the village retains some important vestiges of the medieval past that can give us an idea of how the village was fortified by the Del Carrettos to close with Bossolasco opposite the valley in a vice, to control the passage of San Benedetto. Here, first of all, is the squat stone tower, covered by a gabled roof and perhaps--given its low height--more a part of the castle fortification than a watchtower. Then here is the so-called Arch of the French, a beautiful tower-gate, very similar to that of Novello, with stone machicolations and a sixth-acute entrance arch. The nickname derives from the fact that more than 10,000 of Napoleon's soldiers passed through here in the first Italian Campaign, on their way to conquer Alba after their victories in the Bormida Valley. Niella then also offers the chapel of San Rocco, with apsidal frescoes protected by a stained-glass window (the rest of the church no longer exists) and, of course, a marvelous view overlooking the upper Belbo Valley from almost 800 meters, as well as the subsequent Bormida. Beyond the Bossola Pass here is the Murazzano Tower guarding the Tanaro Valley, while to the south the Cadibona Wall closes the view to the nearby Ligurian Sea.

Not to be missed, heading out toward Mombarcaro, as much for its spectacular location as for the elegance of the building, is the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Monti, erected in the early 1700s perhaps by the talented architect Gallo of Mondovì. In Piedmontese Baroque style (hence very restrained), it is of stone with brick trim and has a single nave. Inside, recently restored 15th-century frescoes suggest an extension/replacement of an earlier country chapel. At 860 meters, it is the highest shrine in the Diocese of Alba, and the great "Summer Bonfire," of Pavesian memory, is held here every year for the Nativity of Mary (Sept. 8).