By foot, by bike or with the horse, along the natural paths of Grognardo. Piedmont region, Italy

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

After space and time constraints of city life, it's like to get to Grognardo happen in a new dimension, more human, where peace takes the place of hustle and everything before was gray, magically green and flowery. The village, which lies between the hills of Monferrato, just eight km from Acqui Terme, and about a hundred from Milan and Turin, is a small town, three hundred inhabitants in winter, increasing to triple in the summer. But everything is relative: after our first ride in the car for different surroundings, Grognardo seems great, maybe because of its hilly terrain has an interesting vertical extent, in fact, from 208 meters above sea level of the municipal building in minutes by car you can reach over 400 feet high and see the steeple of the Parish Church of San'Andrea, adjacent to City Hall, from a breathtaking perspective.
It is these natural features to make Grognardo an ideal destination for tourism escurisionistico, which is why we have chosen the weekend for all sports and peace, not to mention good food. On foot, by bike or on horseback, jogging and cycle paths proposed by the city are a real pleasure.
Before starting a walk, take a ride around the village, the streets that retain the thousand year old history of Grognardo. We also visit the Fontanino, home to the Pro Loco. The water of the Fontanini, Fonte San Felice or, for centuries it was used for domestic purposes and the fact that flows at a constant temperature of about ten degrees, allowed the housewives of doing laundry without freezing your hands even when the surrounding hills were covered by snow. At the beginning of this century the brothers Beccaro, then owners of a thriving winery, decided to use these waters for curative purposes, riding the wave of the wellness. After the wars the source had fallen into oblivion and it was only in the sixties, when the family donated it to the Pro Loco Beccaro the entire area of Fontanino, that it was later recovered for recreational purposes when making demonstrations and evenings of entertainment. Back downtown, we visited the Town Hall, an elegant century building which was the home of the lords. In today's boardroom once you place the balls of Accounts, and now a seventeenth-century painting of the school of Monevi, depicting a nobleman hunting, still remembers those days.
We spent the rest of the weekend between large walk in the woods and among succulent dinners of local dishes, washed down by excellent wines of Monferrato. Our tour began with the blue route, which starts from Palazzo Beccaria Incisa, Town Hall. Inside the historic building some of the rooms have been converted into a reception area for hikers, with a bathroom, dressing room and lounge where you can "park" the bike after the trip. The blue route, the easiest, is 4 kilometers long and a half and touch the monument and perhaps most importantly Grognardo: the Church in the village of San Felice Poggio. Beautiful, was probably built around 1039 and it houses the mausoleum of the family Beccaro. Here are two great missionaries buried Beccaro, Leopold and Gerardo, who have made important missions in India, continuing their work to serve the poor and spirituality in their homeland. May the peace and tranquility of the pristine landscape of Grognardo also lead to a deeper dialogue with God, not only sees the history of the two missionaries along the red path, more challenging, we have done during the second day of our stay, at some point we noticed a small statue of the Madonna leaning on a rock surrounded by greenery, next to a bench handmade: a beautiful place of prayer created by the people of the country. The hiking trails are Grognardo meet other two churches: that of San Antonio Abate in Val d'Orgera, toward the beginning of the orange path, and that of Saint Lucia, the breaking Benzi, along the yellow route. The red path after the bridge over the river Mink, reserve another surprise: a road surrounded by woods that leads to the ruins of the castle, and to get there, you go on a cobblestone dating back thousand a year.
Waiting to organize ourselves to be back here with the horses, the next time we return to Grognardo with mountain biking, because after a couple of days of intense panoramic walk along these paths, we felt like reliving the experience, even in more intense.

Frances Bertha

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.comune.Grognardo.al.it
0144/762103
www.prolocogrognardo.it
0144/762272
0144/762127