Roero e Alto Monferrato in MTB

A circular route starting from Lindhouse in Govone (CN), spanning 47 km with an elevation gain of 830 m. Suitable for MTBs, it features paved sections alternated with easy dirt roads, suitable for all levels of technical experience. The route can be traveled in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions.

It begins with the Royal Castle of Govone, a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a Savoy Residence, and its beautiful park which in spring is adorned with red during ‘Tulips at the Court’ and then with many other colors in ‘Regalmente Rosa‘, while during the Christmas season it becomes the home of the Magical Christmas Country. The Castle is open for visits on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and its rooms are embellished with trompe-l’oeil and 18th-century Chinese tapestries.

San Martino Alfieri offers beautiful panoramas and hides in its castle a historic winery: Marchesi Alfieri, dating back to 1696. Then it passes through San Damiano d’Asti, a town admitted to the oldest palio in Italy: the Palio of Asti, with medieval roots dating back to 1275. The village of Cisterna d’Asti with its beautiful castle (which houses the Museum of Arts and Crafts of the Past) is the only one in the province of Asti that is part of the Roero. It then descends to Canale, the capital of Roero and home of the Enoteca Regionale del Roero. The route then crosses Castellinaldo and Magliano Alfieri, home to the Museum of Plaster Ceilings and the Landscape Theatre.

To complete the route, it finally crosses Priocca and returns through Val Vaneschia, where the ancient road traveled by King Carlo Felice of Savoy once lay, who had chosen the Royal Castle of Govone as his summer residence. He was not the only famous figure to be hosted: in 1730 Jean-Jacques Rousseau found employment as a domestic right within these walls.