GTL - Variant 5A

A variation of the GTL hillcrest route, this brief section takes you down the hillside to the outer edge of the region, where the hills continue out into the region of Liguria.

Gottasecca is the last of the hillcrest villages and awaits you out where the hill descends towards the ample valley of Contrada di Camerana and then Saliceto, the farthest corner of the Piedmont region. Gottasecca owes its fame to two local celebrities. The first was the historical figure of Amedeo Ravina, an Italian poet and true patriot in Italy’s unification movement, something of a Sándor Petőfi for the Piedmont region.
He spent 27 years in exile and was involved in every revolutionary action between 1821 and 1848 in the Piedmont region, in Spain, in France and then back in Italy. He came back to Italy in 1848 during the time of King Charles Albert and the Albertine Statute and became a deputy of the Subalpine Parliament nearly until his death, just a few years prior to the unification of Italy. The second is a local sports celebrity, Felice Bertola, one of the great champions of balon (or pallapugno), the popular local sport here in the Langhe. Bertola drew crowds to his matches for over 20 years (from 1963 to 1986) and won more titles than any other champion of this great sport.

The route winds along the low-traffic road that leads from the centre of the the village to the hamlet of Valle. As you leave the village, follow the signs for Valle. This paved road will take you quickly down to the Uzzone river through panoramic cultivated fields and, past a curve, a lovely dry-stone farmhouse as you descend the steep hillside overlooking the village.

The surrounding landscape features harsh but charming limestone gullies as you approach the outer reaches of the Piedmont region and can begin to see the first signs of Ligurian culture and a whole new world out there to be discovered.

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