The best road cycling routes around Rocchetta Palafea

Excellent road in the green and without traffic

Santo Stefano Belbo is an Italian municipality in Piedmont, in the province of Cuneo, located between the Langhe and the Moscato area, in a valley crossed by the Belbo river.

Calamandrana is an Italian municipality of 1,643 inhabitants in the province of Asti in Piedmont

The Castle of Monastero Bormida was not originally built as a defensive structure but as a Benedictine monastery, founded around 1050 by monks from the Abbey of Fruttuaria, called by the Aleramici Marquises to reclaim the lands devastated by Saracen raids. The 27-meter tower still visible today was originally the bell tower, and the river flowing a few meters from the southern tower confirms the non-military nature of the building. In 1393, the Benedictines abandoned the monastery, and its feudal history began: the fief passed to the Del Carretto marquises, who in the 15th century added the first defensive structures, transforming it into a castle. The building is a quadrangular structure with an internal courtyard, protected by towers on multiple sides and connected to the former bell tower by a small suspension bridge. On the south facade, there is a two-arched Renaissance loggia with a small stone column. Inside, the rooms on the main floor—transformed in the 17th century—feature mosaic floors and sail and cross vaults with frescoes of floral and geometric motifs. The castle later passed to the Della Rovere family and subsequently to the Genoese Polleri family, finally becoming the property of the Municipality starting in 1880. Today it is open to visitors and is part of the regional circuit "Castelli Aperti".

Rocchetta Palafea, in the province of Asti, is an ancient medieval village founded as a military garrison in the Belbo Valley, with documented origins dating back to around 960. Dominated by its characteristic quadrangular tower and surrounded by ancient walls, the town was an Aleramic fiefdom and then a Genoese one, preserving a historic atmosphere linked to its past as a fortress.

The Langhe-Roero and Monferrato wine landscapes in Piedmont are made up of five distinct wine-growing areas and one castle: the Langa of Barolo, the Barbaresco hills, Nizza Monferrato, and Barbera.

Santo Stefano Belbo was immortalized by the writing of Cesare Pavese, an intellectual who, through his works, particularly The Moon and the Bonfires, narrated the history and traditions of a town, immortalizing its people and making its places legendary. A poet, translator, editor, and writer, he is considered one of the greatest and most important Italian intellectuals of the 20th century.

Incisa Scapaccino, a village in the Asti area with Roman and medieval origins (mentioned in 984), was the capital of an Aleramic marquisate until 1548. In 1928 it took on its current name in honour of Giovanni Battista Scapaccino, a carabiniere native of the place and the first Gold Medal for Military Valour (1834), annexed to the Savoy by