Felizzano, a small country village located at the edges of the Monferrato Casalese, is the starting place of the new tour. It is 8.00 AM of a spring morning, we are preparing the bicycles. It is the perfect day for cycling, the wheatear is fine, the sky is blue and the temperature unusually warm.
We left Felizzano and run through the road called (SP77 and then SP50) toward the village of Fubine. We proceeded side by side for long time. It is Sunday morning, no traffic allows us to talk togheter and speculate about who could be the first on top of the first slope (every time Pietro is the winner, sigh). After seven kilometers, almost flat, we cycling toward the village of Vignale Monferrato and we meet the first sweet slope called “il tronco di Vignale”; playfully, we getting over it. The landscape changes from flat to hilly after Vignale Monferrato and we enjoy the view. After Vignale, we make a long descent reaching a crossing. We turn left on (SP46) and start the slope which drive to Frassinello Monferrato , a sweet slope measuring around two kilometres. Don’t worry you can climb fast on the top even if you are not a professional cyclers!!
Visiting Castello di Lignano
Here, you can make a stop to visit the beautiful "Castello di Lignano" whose original structure according to the inscription on the plaque that carries the name of Lucio Herennio, called “Lhennuis”, from whom the castle takes its name probably it goes back to the Roman period and consists of a defense “castrum”. The construction of the castle began between the 10th and 11th centuries. The property of the Nemours family goes to the Cane family in the 1400’s. After passing through several owners, the castle ends up in hands of the Lavagno family in the early 1900’s and in 1980 goes to the Gaiero family, who undertook the renowned wine activity, modernizing the castle’s 19th century.
We ride for more than one half kilometer then turn right on SP42 and go ahead for four kilometers.After a funny downhill slope we turn left and we start a short and strong climb, around two kilometers, which drives to the delightful village of Moleto, placed on a 350 meters-high hill. The village is characterized for its beautiful landscape on the plain of the Po around Casale Monferrato and Italian Alps in the north. Moleto, with its narrow streets and the yellow colour of the old houses made mainly of “tufo”, gives the exciting taste of ancient moods. Don’t forget that you can find the "Cave di Moleto" kept by Bernard, a beautiful place to stay for your holidays.
After the short break in Moleto, we restart the tour toward Olivola, another beautiful village, whose name has Germanic origins around the IX centuary. The road to Olivola starts with a strong slope (more than 10%); Pietro challenges me to a duel so I throw down the glove, stand up on the pedals and reach the top alone (well done Stefano)! The trip runs on the top of the hill showing beautiful landscapes of woods and vineyards.
After five kilometers of flat road, a quick descent slope drives us to the crossing which links Olivola to Ottiglio SP30c. We turn right and speedy (45 kilometers/hour … wroooom) reaching the road toward Casorzo. We cycling on a nice slope until a new crossand here, we turn to left toward Altavilla Monferrato (SP51) an ancient small village famous also for the historic Mazzetti distillery. After few kilometers we are strike by a nice surprise: a family of deer (daddy, mommy and four children) crosses the road near us.
After the amazing meeting, we restart and reach the village of Altavilla and quickly cycling down toward the road for Montemagno (SP14) and turn after 3 kilometers to the village of Viarigi. following the SP29. We run long the last kilometers of this beautiful tour, quickly go down from Viarigi, crossing many nice and small villages like Accorneri and Piepasso until Quattordio, a village placed two kilometers before the finish of the tour in Felizzano.
