Casale Monferrato→Cereseto

Description of the route

The first stage leaves Casale Monferrato from Piazza Castello and immediately introduces the character of the Great Walk: a succession of dirt roads, hill crossings and landscape changes. After the urban stretch you reach the stadium area, then take Salita Sant'Anna and continue along via Fratelli Sosso. Once we find the Salita Sant'Anna road again, the houses thin out and the route enters the Casalese hills, where the profile of the city progressively gives way to vineyards, farmhouses and cultivated ridges.

San Giorgio Monferrato and its castle remain visible for a good part of the first section and help to read the direction of the journey. After passing a crossroads, keep to the high road; near a farmhouse you leave the asphalt to enter between the rows. At the end of the vineyard the route becomes a wooded path, undulating but pleasant, which descends and ascends before reaching the crossing of the provincial road. It is one of the passages where the GPX track is particularly useful for recognizing the correct exit from the network of rural roads.

Further on you come across a small brick bridge and cross a new ridge. A stretch in the woods precedes the descent through the vineyards towards the lower valley between Rosignano and Cella Monte, an environment also marked by truffle groves. Paths 731 and 726 lead towards the so-called white villages, recognizable by the houses built with cantoni stone. At Cella Monte this material, its processing and the infernot system become an integral part of the visit and allow you to understand the landscape beyond the simple passage on foot.

Upon leaving Cella Monte, in front of the small church of the Madonna di Loreto, the path bends towards the Fornace hamlet and continues in the direction of Sala Monferrato. Along this part you come across Cascina Valpane and the sculpture La Capasanta from the Terre Emerse project. Once through the town, the cemetery area and the Big Bench offer a panoramic point of the village and the hills just covered. A dirt road finally leads to the SP36 and the final approach to Cereseto, dominated by the large castle which clearly marks the conclusion of the stage.