One day in Montiglio Monferrato — sundials, frescoes and Romanesque churches

Montiglio Monferrato is really several villages in one. Since 1998 the old comuni of Montiglio, Colcavagno and Scandeluzza have shared a town hall, and a dozen hamlets are scattered across the hills between the Versa and the Stura. The heart of it is the borgo on its hill, under one of the oldest castles in Monferrato. Most people come for the truffles on the first two Sundays of October. The rest of the year it's quiet, and that's the best time to see its frescoes, its sundials and its Romanesque churches. You'll need a car for the afternoon, because the sights are spread out over the comune.

Morning: coffee on the piazza and the sundials

Park in Piazza Regina Margherita, the square at the foot of the old town, where the war memorial stands. Have breakfast at Bar Ristorante Del Pozzo, which opens early every day except Wednesday and has tables out on the square. It keeps things simple, with coffee, panini and big salads at fair prices, and it's handy for a quick lunch too.

Then walk up Via Roma into the borgo and look up. Montiglio calls itself the Borgo delle Meridiane: about 50 painted sundials decorate the façades, almost all restored or painted by the local gnomonist Mario Tebenghi, who died in 2019. Each one is different. Some tell the canonical hours the monks kept, others modern time, and most come with a motto in Latin or Piedmontese dialect. One of the best is on the bell tower of Santa Maria della Pace, the parish church. Go inside to see the 1840 frescoes by the Ivaldi brothers, the carved wooden pulpit and the inlaid marble high altar, and look across the street at the medieval palazzo with its original double windows.

The lane keeps climbing to the castle. Be realistic about it: it's private, and the interior only opens for events, so most days you'll see the high walls, the tower and the gateway. In the castle park is the reason art lovers come here, the Cappella di Sant'Andrea. Its walls hold the largest 14th-century fresco cycle in Piedmont, the Life of Christ painted by the anonymous Maestro di Montiglio around 1345–1360. The only way in is the guided walking tour sold by the Langhe Monferrato Roero tourism board. It runs on a handful of Sundays from May to November, costs €10 and starts from the town hall, so check the dates and book before you plan the day around it.

Lunch: Via Asti or a farm table

For an easy lunch in town, walk down to "L Munfra" on Via Asti. It's run by two sisters, and it looks like a pizzeria, but the homemade pasta and local salumi are what people come back for. There's a set menu as well as the à la carte.

If it's a weekend and you've planned ahead, drive out instead to La Meridiana, a farm restaurant in the hills north-east of the village with a view across the Monferrato. It's by reservation only. The fixed menu runs through course after course of home-style Piedmontese cooking, with wine, coffee and dessert included, for a price in the mid-thirties per head on recent visits. Don't plan on doing much afterwards.

Afternoon: the Romanesque pieve and the old railway

Ten minutes' walk from the centre, down Via Padre Carpignano by the cemetery, stands the Pieve di San Lorenzo, and for most visitors it's the highlight of Montiglio. It was built in the 12th century in pale stone banded with brick. Inside, the cruciform piers carry capitals carved with sirens, monsters and vines, a whole medieval bestiary in stone. You don't need to find a key. The pieve is on the Chiese a porte aperte scheme: book a slot on the app, the door opens from your phone, and the lights and a recorded commentary in several languages guide you round. Volunteers of the Romanico in collina network also open it on the first Sunday of the month in season.

Just outside the village is the old Montiglio-Murisengo station, built in 1912 on the Asti–Chivasso line in brick and render like a Piedmontese villa. Fondazione FS has restored it beautifully. Regular trains stopped long ago, but heritage trains still come in on fair days, and on event days the goods shed shows a working 1:87 model railway of the surrounding hills.

With the rest of the afternoon, head south-east into the old comune of Scandeluzza. At the entrance to its cemetery, alone in the fields, is the Pieve dei Santi Sebastiano e Fabiano, another 12th-century church, whose apse is crowned with a double row of little brick arches on carved corbels. It's usually locked, but the outside is the point. Carry on to Rinco, the smallest and prettiest of the hamlets: terracotta houses, wrought-iron lamps, a little piazza, and the old castle and its slender brick tower above it all. The castle is now private homes, so this too is a stop for the outside and the view.

If you'd rather stay closer, the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine at Albarengo is a quiet country sanctuary ringed by small chapels with the Stations of the Cross. The church itself is often shut, but the churchyard is a peaceful place to sit.

Evening: aperitivo in Sant'Anna, dinner above Carboneri

On the way back, stop for an aperitivo at Caffè Sant'Anna Ventitre in the hamlet of Sant'Anna. Erica and her team run it with real warmth, it has a good choice of wines and its own artisan pastries, and it's closed on Tuesdays. If you're here in the morning instead, come for the croissants.

For dinner, the Parco del Bric sits on a hilltop above the hamlet of Carboneri, with the Monferrato hills laid out below it. The cooking is solidly Piedmontese and the owners are warm hosts. There's a small park with animals beside it, which children like. It's closed on Mondays, and the road and car park are steep. On a Thursday to Sunday evening, Fattoria Roico, a farm on the provincial road south of the village, is a simpler, homelier alternative.

Wine, hazelnuts and slower things

Montiglio is truffle and hazelnut country more than wine country, and neither of its two small wine producers runs a tasting room. Crismar pours its Barbera 'Velluto' with dinner at its own Vigneto Pardom agriturismo on Via alla Stazione, so that's where to try it. Ullio is on the same street, but phone before you go.

If you have a second day, there's plenty to fill it. Book a hazelnut farm visit at I Tre Gelsi in Colcavagno to walk the orchards and taste the hazelnut cake. Ride out over the hills from La Balzana. Or, on a weekday, book a massage and the sauna at the Retreat Monferrato spa in its restored 16th-century monastery.

When to come

The big date is the Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo on the first two Sundays of October. It's busy and needs planning, so see Montiglio Monferrato for the truffle fair. In mid-May, the Golosaria walk Passeggiando per Montiglio leads you through the hills to Rinco with food stops on the way. Around the summer solstice, Dalle corti ai cortili holds concerts in the borgo's private courtyards. July and August bring the hamlet sagre: the fritto misto in Carboneri, acciughe al verde in Sant'Anna, the carpionata in Colcavagno, and the Festa di San Lorenzo, with a concert in the pieve on 14 August. In November the hamlets take turns serving bagna càuda.