From Piazza Umberto I you set off on foot and walk right into his books. Here's the trail, stop by stop, with distances counted from our door.
Fenoglio didn't invent the Alta Langa: he copied it from real life, barely changing the names. And the real thing is all around here: Murazzano, where as a boy he spent his summers with relatives and where, after 8 September 1943, he lived his first weeks as a partisan; San Benedetto Belbo, his spiritual home, six kilometres away; the Bossola with its pines, halfway there. Sleeping on the square means waking up already inside the map of his stories.
tip: set off early in the morning, while the fog is still deciding whether to lift
Distances are measured from Piazza Umberto I. The first three stops form a half-day walking loop; the others call for a car or an e-bike.
Here Fenoglio spent his summer holidays with his father's relatives. And here he returned in the autumn of 1943: he lived his first weeks as a partisan in a Garibaldi group between Murazzano and Mombarcaro. You'll find the village just as he found it: the square, the tower, the wind.
"On these hills, time is something you can see"
The ridge between Murazzano and Niella Belbo, where the pines look out over both our bell tower and San Benedetto's. From up here, enthusiasts head down to find the cemetery, the pool, the houses of Mimberghe and the old mills of the valley: all mentioned in his pages.
The quintessential Fenoglio spot: a loop through the historic centre with ten information boards and just as many plaques with quotations. Look for the censa di Placido, half tavern and half grocery store with the sign "Trattoria | commestibili": it was the heart of the village, and of its stories.
"It was raining over all the Langhe; up there in San Benedetto my father took his first taste of the underground water."
The "barbaric" hill of his shortest, and perhaps most perfect, short story: a fork on the valley trail, a handful of houses, a storm looming. Reached on foot from San Benedetto, along the stream.
The highest point of the whole Langhe. From here starts the stop 7 of the Grande Traversata delle Langhe, which descends to San Benedetto passing through Cascine del Battaglino and the hamlet of Lunetta, a cluster of stone houses with the chapel of Santa Caterina.
To close the circle: Alba, with the birthplace and the Centro Studi Beppe Fenoglio, then the hills between Mango and Santo Stefano Belbo where Milton walks through the fog of his private affair. Half an hour by car, another Langhe: the one of wine and partisans.
at check-in we'll give you the paper map with the trails marked, and the right tip for the season
La Malora if you head to San Benedetto, Johnny the Partisan if you go down towards Alba. In San Benedetto, the plaques read the pages to you on the spot; for the journey there, the bookshop in Alba is half an hour away.
The trails are easy but genuine: dirt and stone underfoot, the odd rise and fall. After the rain, the Langhe lives up to its name: proper mud.
In the village there are fountains, on the ridge there aren't. And the wind of the Bossola works up a legendary thirst.