A panoramic view on a fairytale world: a weekend in Ponzone. Trip to Piedmont region, Italy

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

When the gray routine city begins to simmer, it's just a place like this where you want to escape: a village in the countryside, which is reached after several minutes of hills and curves, that little effort is amply rewarded with a breathtaking view . Ponzone is a place that seems straight out of a fairy tale set on an isolated ridge, which opens the second panoramic view of Italy, the Alps and on the green hills that reach the sea. Even say that the particular brightness of the sky here is due to the presence of the sea in the distance as the crow flies only a few tens of kilometers.
This place should be enjoyed even to those who had spent many years before: in fact, if the first human presence so far identified in Acqui Terme, a beautiful spa town that we passed through to get here, go back to the Neolithic, on the heights of Ponzone objects have been found even in the Paleolithic. The first document that mentions the town is dated 967, and over the centuries the town was the seat of the Marquis Aleramo, Del Carretto and Paleologi of Constantinople.
The first walk of our weekend in Ponzone on a beautiful autumn day, started from the square of the parish church, consecrated in 1627, even if the work to achieve it had begun fifty years earlier. This small square is one of the most beautiful in the world: if the church holds within it many precious frescoes, a few steps away is a panorama of mountain ranges that would inspire future generations of painters. It is no coincidence that right there is placed a coin-operated binoculars, allowing you to bring in his own eyes this dream landscape. And if it is art, the Belvedere of Ponzone is also enriched by an open-air exhibition: together we look a bit 'square, and a bit', landscape, faces carved in stone, located in the vicinity of binoculars. Faces that appear to be those farmers who make their products unique cuisine of these areas, which are carved faces in the stories of these places.
Ponzone gave birth to an important nineteenth-century painter, Pietro Ivaldi, said Muto of Tolet. Born in the village Tolet, the deaf-mute artist has left us a very large paintings, especially paintings that are present in many churches of Monferrato, but also in Liguria and Lombardy.
Continuing our walk we arrived in a lovely park lit by the rays of the autumn sun, which is also part of a nature trail proposed by the City. On the lawn of the park we saw some beautiful mushrooms that proud smile who was passing by.
Stay in the elegant rooms of Hotel Restaurant Malo, a historic structure in downtown Ponzone, we had the pleasure of tasting of typical Piedmontese dinner, but made with imagination and creativity of Cinzia. "The famous thread kissed was born in this house, he had invented Romeo Malò the late nineteenth century," he says Cynthia, who took over the premises by Malo and runs with her husband Henry.
We begin with a variation of appetizers, including the thread kissed the little bundle of foie gras with pears and cinnamon to red wine, a sweet pepper flan with Bagna Cauda, the capponette with the fondue, and cubes of fillet with truffle Fassona , all with excellent bread and homemade cakes. "For us it is crucial to put customers at ease. For this proponaimo three types of fixed-price menu, "explains Cynthia and choose the first: the blueberries (or the fettuccine with blueberries in smoothies) sauce duck breast, a change of season with the cream anchovies, which consists of three kinds of ravioli, three different colors, depending on the filling: milk thistle, red pepper and artichokes. Our friends are opting instead for the pumpkin gnocchi with melted Fontina and hazelnut. In the second course, our group is divided between the Ruche Castagnole stew, a bowl of pork to Freisa, rabbit stew, and the cock to our national Babi, or the cock stretched open and browned in the shape of a frog (from hence the name), under the weight of a large pot, a method that makes the meat very soft.
Accompany these delicious products of vegetables in season and with the excellent Piedmont wines, chosen from among the 170 labels available. The end of our dinner sweet sees us try a hazelnut cake, a mousse nougat, cake and a cake with a heart of the apricot brandy, as well as small cakes made from the house.
Soon repeat the pleasant experience of the weekend in Ponzone, even to visit the winery that year-end will further enrich the world of hospitality Malo.

Frances Bertha

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.comuneponzone.it
www.albergomalo.com
Malo Hotel Restaurant
Piazza Garibaldi, 1 Ponzone (AL)
0144/78075 0144/78124
Open all year