Discover Cioccaro

When looking for a hotel in Cioccaro, three different interests can guide your plans: the TerrEmerse art project, Stage 6A of the “Cammini delle Alte Colline Ombrose e delle Colline Chiare,” and the town’s church art. This lets you consider whether a sculpture, a specific hiking route or historic paintings should be the focus of your stay. When planning your route for Stage 6A, the approximate distance and duration are just as important as the specific route.

TerrEmerse: Sculpture and Circular Route Project

The whale sculpture “Fossile 3” is installed in Cioccaro di Penango and is part of the TerrEmerse project. Its installation sites are incorporated into tourist-oriented routes for trekking, cycling, horseback riding and quad biking. If you are planning a visit because of the artwork, check its current status locally before you go.

Another way to explore the project is through the Tenuta Fiammenga TerrEmerse circular route project. Iron sculptures, including “Fossile 3” by Giorgia Sanlorenzo, stand among the rows of vines. Tenuta Fiammenga is located in Monferrato among vineyards and is dedicated to organic farming. This art theme therefore brings together a specific subject, its artistic attribution and the vineyard rows as a setting: “Fossile 3” is described as a whale sculpture and is also one of the iron sculptures in the circular route project.

Stage 6A: Route, Time and Course

Stage 6A is about 7 kilometres long and is expected to take about 2 hours. Both figures are approximate guidelines for planning your time and route. The route reaches the Church of San Vittore in Cioccaro and passes alongside it. As route details may change if trail maintenance conditions change, check the latest conditions before setting out.

The path runs over unpaved ground through cultivated areas and then along the edge of a forest as far as Via Cantoglio. This gives you several specific features to help with navigation: the church as a named point on the stage, Via Cantoglio as the endpoint of the route described, and the transition from cultivated land to the forest edge. Combined with the approximate duration and distance, this provides a fairly concrete basis for fitting this hiking stage into your stay.

Church History and Paintings

San Vittore also brings together a named place and a history of church construction. The church probably dates from the 12th century. The present-day church was built in just over two years on the foundations of an ancient Romanesque church. The dating remains a probable estimate; the figure of just over two years refers to the construction of the present-day church.

The Parrocchiale di Cioccaro houses two paintings from 1602: “Madonna with Child and Saints Vittore and Francesco” and “Madonna of the Rosary.” The titles refer to different subjects: a Madonna with Child and Saints Vittore and Francesco, and the Madonna of the Rosary. Together with the building history of San Vittore, the paintings offer another art-historical point of interest in Cioccaro.

Discover more destinations: Mombercelli, Montiglio Monferrato, Nizza Monferrato, Cassinasco, Penango, Costigliole Dʼasti, Cossombrato, Cortazzone.

For the broader travel overview: Asti.