GTL - Grande Traversata delle Langhe - Stage 2A: Pezzolo Valle Uzzone - Shrine of Todocco

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Highlights and tour details

The route, variant of the GTL in the direction of Todacco, travels on a paved road with little traffic. It allows to enjoy one of the most representative villages of Alta Langa and to reach a Shrine, religious and scenic location that has always been in the heart of local residents.

The village of Pezzolo Valle Uzzone sits along the left bank of the Uzzone, on a slight spur to protect it from floods. A walk is highly recommended to immerse oneself in this last secret valley of the Langhe, between forests and fairytale villages, lost castles and romantic ruins.

In Pezzolo, the main route is almost the perfect archetype of the fortified village with the houses along the cart tracks, the sandstone archways, the flowered windows and the plaques that made this land famous...in short, fill your eyes and ears with this miraculous village placed on the fields of Uzzone which is your guide to the valley. If you love hermitages, here, not far away, in open countryside, San Rocco in Carpaneta, the only church that overlooks the river and the fortress above, which, instead, welcomes believers from the road.

From the town of Pezzolo climb the slope that takes to Torre Uzzone, skirting Rio Torre Uzzone first and Rio Grosso after. Torre Uzzone was a municipality until the late 1920s when, for the growing depopulation it was joined to Gorrino and became Pezzolo Valle Uzzone (the village of the valley was already divided in half between the two municipalities). The depopulation is even more evident if you look for Torre today, reduced to a few farmhouses scattered around the remains of the abbey, which has been tastefully and delightfully restored by a Swiss family. What remains then of this ancient village already mentioned in the inheritance of Bonifacio del Vasto around the year 1000?

One of the most fascinating cemeteries of the Langhe remains, with few headstones still walled in on the boundary stones that tell stories of a century ago. Or the remains, now reduced to perimeter, of the ancient castle and of the tower that gave the place its name, remains that lie on the opposite edge, immersed for centuries in the woods. No one knows what happens and why the place was abandoned, but for sure it happened in medieval times, because by 1400 the traces of it had been completely lost.

From Torre Uzzone continue on the trail uphill which reaches as far as the Shrine of Todacco, place of historic interest situated in a particularly scenic area, in which a locanda, restaurant and bar heroically resist for the joy of all the visitors. We are right on the ridge between Piedmont and Liguria, where the gaze lingers at length between distant villages and towards the fortified concentric of Gorrino, placed precisely to close the route from and to the sea, and, therefore, for centuries, strategic place of the lords of Cortemilia.

Attractions

Pezzolo Valle Uzzzone: Shrine of Todocco

Other information

Source: Unione Montana Alta Langa
Itinerary code: GTL
Recommended period: Apr - Nov
Access by public transport: Yes
Classification: Medium and low mountain provincial
Provinces crossed: Langhe Monferrato e Roero