Piemonte without cars | Asti-Chivasso Stage 3: Albugnano-Chivasso

From Vezzolano you return to the crossroads with the path followed uphill from Castelnuovo Don Bosco near a vineyard and instead turn right onto a dirt road. After a few hundred meters, at a large isolated oak tree, you take a path on the right that runs alongside a vineyard and goes up the hill to the farmhouses above. From here you follow the path in the woods halfway up the hill and then descend sharply towards the quadrangular Cascina Vasco and the underlying SP 16 that you take on the left to reach the village of Berzano, from where you continue for a stretch on the Provincial Road towards Casalborgone until you meet a small asphalt road on the right of the cemetery of San Rocco and you follow it to the pylon near the Cascina Bari where you need to take a steep path that descends into the woods on the left.

With a small detour continuing straight to the pylon you go up the hill for a few hundred meters, up to the church of San Giovanni, from the Romanesque period, among the oldest in the area and contemporary with the Abbey of Vezzolano: without entering the courtyard of the farmhouse, continue on the path that goes around it then rises with a couple of turns in the woods reaching a saddle on the ridge; go up to the left arriving immediately at the top of the hill on which stands the church of San Giovanni. Returning to the pylon, take a path to the west that goes down into the woods and arrives at Cascina Bissolei superiore.

You soon arrive at the crossroads with the SP 16 at Cascina Bissolei inferiore. Continue left downhill on the asphalt road and after about 80 m. up to the votive shrine in bricks of San Giuseppe. Here you turn right onto the road that goes up from the valley floor until you reach Strada Caola which you follow along an undulating stretch on a dirt road through the woods that leads after about a km to the crossroads on the SP 97 towards Cinzano. You follow it turning right for about 100 m. and you reach the little church of San Rocco, located at the crossroads between the SP 102d and SP 97 (crossroads for Cinzano, Casalborgone, Gassino). After passing the chapel you leave the road and go up to the right (Strada Val Ferro) in the broad-leaved forest until you come into sight of Bric Scaletto which goes around the eastern slope until it reaches the ridge a little further on. The itinerary thus enters the Bosc Grand of the Bosco del Vaj and Bosc Grand Special Conservation Area. We then continue straight and slightly downhill along a very panoramic ridge between crops and dry meadows until we reach Cascina Garrona, located under a steep wall, which allows us to quickly descend to the right towards Casalborgone. After passing the Acquedotto Smat basin, we continue on a slight slope on the ridge that allows panoramic views that range towards the south with Superga and the Turin hill or north towards the area of ​​Casalborgone and San Sebastiano da Po.

We pass near Bric del Cerro and continue towards Cascina Scarassa at a large clearing. Once we reach the Cascina, we come across a crossroads and take the path on the right that allows us to quickly reach Rul Verda (Quercus crenata), a magnificent specimen of about 130 years, a height that exceeds 20 meters and a trunk circumference at man height of 3 meters. There are only three examples in the entire Turin hill. Continuing on the track halfway up the north-facing slope, you proceed around the Bric Turniola until you reach the locality of Bouchet du Ciap. From here, with a short downhill stretch, you quickly reach the locality of Tre Termini ("tre termu", the border point between the municipalities of Castagneto Po, Rivalba and San Raffaele Cimena). Once out of the woods, you follow a paved stretch (Via Roncola) until you reach the Chapel of Sant’Antonio da Padova.

Here you turn right to take the path (part of the Sentiero GTC, Grande Traversata della Collina - Tratto 9) in the woods that runs alongside the Bric del Vaj, initially staying on the south-east facing slope. You pass through the Borgata Soliti Bassi and go up 50 meters until you reach the locality of " 'l Roc" where you go over the hill. From here the path bends west and runs along the hillside south of the town of Castagneto Po. You soon reach the town passing by Cascina Rivera. After crossing the town you reach a crossroads at Cascina Nespolina and go down to the right on the Sentiero Berruti recently opened by the CAI of Chivasso which allows you to go down to the SP 590 at the roundabout near the Po bridge. After crossing the bridge you enter Chivasso and go along the whole of Via Po to the Duomo from where you quickly reach the train station.

From Chivasso you can use the trains of the Metropolitan Railway Service from Turin with hourly frequency and the Turin - Milan line.

www.trenitalia.com

• Former Church of San Pietro in Berzano di San Pietro

• Bosco del Vaj and Bosc Grand Special Conservation Area

• Rul Verda di Casalborgone

• Historic Center of Chivasso (Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta; Octagonal Tower; medieval center arcades, Cavour Canal intake mouths)