Grinzane Cavour is a brick castle at the top of a hill, six kilometres south west of Alba, with a church beside it, a few houses and the Barolo vineyards running down on every side. The core is the central tower, which the castle dates to the eleventh century; the rest grew up around it over the centuries, and in 1547 Pietrino Belli, for his wedding, had the ceiling of the hundred and fifty six masks painted. In September 1832 a young man of twenty two arrived, Camillo Benso di Cavour, sent by his father to run the estate: he was mayor of the village for seventeen years, called in one oenologist and then another, and just after 1848 the first hundred bottles of a wine of 1844 came out of his cellars, probably the first vintage of Barolo in bottle. The village took the name of Cavour in 1916. Since 1967 the castle has been the seat of the Enoteca Regionale Piemontese, since 1999 the hall of the World Auction of the White Truffle of Alba, and since 2014 one of the six parts of the UNESCO site of the vineyard landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato. It is visited in half a day, and there is a motorhome car park 500 metres away, to be checked before setting out.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
In Grinzane there is only one car park for motorhomes, small and free, five minutes on foot from the castle, but the motorhomers' sites today mark it as closed: before setting out, phone the town hall. For an easy disposal point or for more room there are Castiglione Falletto and a farm campsite below La Morra, both less than four kilometres away as the crow flies.
Area camper di via Bricco
Piazza Prof. Ugo Genta, via Bricco, 12060 Grinzane Cavour (CN)
it is the car park that the castle itself points to, "about 500 metres away, in via Bricco", with a wide view over the hills. The details come from the motorhomers' community sites: three bays for motorhomes, on tarmac and slightly sloping, and a post for water and disposal along the road, before the car park, which those who have used it describe as awkward, with grey water that can only be emptied with a connecting hose. OpenStreetMap, on the other hand, marks it with no water and no disposal, and for this reason we do not list the services here. Camperonline, one of those sites, today marks it as closed: in October 2024 a motorhomer found it closed without notice, and in May 2025 another found two bays out of three taken by cars and did not park. The castle only says that in via Bricco "you can stop with the motorhome", and the town writes nothing: before setting out, ask the town hall, on 0173 262016. No official source says anything about the night
three bays marked on the ground
services not recorded
Free, according to OpenStreetMap and the community sites; the town publishes nothing
the municipal area of the next village, below piazzale Vassallo, beside the sports grounds and in the middle of the Nebbiolo vineyards, a short walk from the old centre. The town describes it with the motorhome service point and places it on the route of the Sentieri del Barolo, the trails among the vineyards. On water the sources do not agree: OpenStreetMap marks it without. The overnight stay comes from the motorhomers' sites and from OpenStreetMap, not from the town; to ask, there is the town hall switchboard, on 0173 62824. By motorhome it is about ten minutes from the castle of Grinzane
four places, according to OpenStreetMap
Grey water
Free, according to OpenStreetMap and the community sites; the town does not publish prices · comune.castiglionefalletto.cn.it
a winery's farm campsite, with a few pitches in a courtyard among the vineyards of the Annunziata, a hamlet of La Morra, and toilets with hot showers, a barbecue and a portico for eating outdoors. You can follow the work in the vineyard and, on booking and at extra cost, taste the house wines. The website says nothing about disposal or the months it is open: ask first. OpenStreetMap marks it at number 115, the owner writes 116
three large pitches, for motorhomes and tents
ElectricityShowerToiletsWi-Fi
11.50 euros per pitch, 15 euros for a single night, 9.50 euros per adult, 6 euros for children from 6 to 14, electricity 3.50 euros and tourist tax 0.50 euros per adult: two people, for one night with electricity, come to 38.50 euros. Price list published by the owner, without the year · 333 1774175 · larosanelborgo.it
Grinzane is two places: the village at the top of the hill, with the castle and the church, and Gallo d'Alba down on the plain, where the town hall is.
The castle square is closed to cars: you park at the foot of the castle or in the car parks of via Bricco, where the motorhome area is too, and walk up
From the A33 Asti-Cuneo you leave at Roddi, four kilometres away. The motorway has no toll booths and is all paid in free flow: with an electronic toll device, with the Conto Targa, or online within fifteen days of passing. The Alba ring road stays free for local journeys
The panoramic route of the Vigna Gustava, 800 metres and about twenty minutes between the castle and the In Vigna museum, passes by the belvedere
Alba is six kilometres away, with the station and the tourist office: it has its own page
Seeing
Sights
You begin at the castle, where the museum, the halls and the enoteca are, walk round the walls to the vineyard and go down to the belvedere. The church is beside the castle; Gallo d'Alba is a kilometre further down. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
The castle and the courtyard
Castle · free entry · 44.65316, 7.99488
Via Castello 5, 12060 Grinzane Cavour (CN)
the brick castle that can be seen from half the Langa. The core is the central tower: the castle dates it to the middle of the eleventh century, in the time of Countess Adelaide of Susa, when there was a watchtower here against Saracen raids, while other sources move it to the thirteenth century or to 1350. Around it grew the fortified house to the north and the U shaped wing, with windows and friezes of small arches that recall the castle of Serralunga, and on the south side the two round corbelled turrets that start from the second floor. In 1932 the Marchesa Adele Alfieri di Sostegno, Cavour's great niece, gave it to the town of Alba, and today it belongs to Alba and Grinzane together. The restoration for the centenary of Italian Unity, begun in 1960, was led by the architect Andrea Bruno, who removed the farmhouses built up against it and reopened the walled up windows. The square, the gardens and the courtyard can be walked round without a ticket, and the whole tower can only be seen from the courtyard. On the façade is the plaque of 24 October 1896 that remembers Cavour as a "hardworking and benevolent mayor".
the museum fills the rooms of the castle and is walked round in three quarters of an hour. It begins with peasant life, the wine presses, the stills and the tools of the workshops; it passes through the ethnographic sections, rooms furnished as at the end of the seventeenth and the end of the nineteenth century, with photographs by Aldo Agnelli of Alba; it ends in the Cavour hall. There you find the mayor's sash, original documents of 1832 and 1844, the last signed in his own hand, the story of the estate's wine with its two oenologists, General Staglieno and the Frenchman Louis Oudart, and at the end the Count's bedroom, with the original furniture: the Empire style bed and the little steps for climbing into it, which hid the chamber pot inside. One room is devoted to the white truffle and to truffle hunting, which since 2021 has been UNESCO intangible heritage. The ticket also includes the historic halls. Dogs are allowed on a lead; in a wheelchair, with a mobile ramp, you can reach the ground floor and the first room of the route.
Opening hours from April to October 10:00-19:00, from November to March 10:00-18:00, last entry one hour before closing; closed on Tuesday · 8 euros, reduced 6 for over 65s and students, 3 euros from 6 to 14, free under six and with the Abbonamento Musei; the audio guide costs 3 euros more · 0173 262159 · castellogrinzane.com · info@castellogrinzane.com
The Sala delle Maschere and the Sala degli Affreschi
Monument · paid entry · 44.65316, 7.99488
they are seen with the museum ticket. The Sala delle Maschere, the Hall of the Masks, takes its name from the wooden ceiling that Pietrino Belli, a jurist from Alba and lord of the castle, had painted in 1547 for his wedding to Giulia Damiani: 156 panels between the beams, with portraits, coats of arms, children playing music and animals standing for the virtues. You can make out the red bull on a white field of the Belli and the eight pointed silver star of the Damiani. Cavour had his study and bedroom here, and because of the cold he had the vault lowered with a false ceiling of reeds and plaster: the masks stayed hidden until the restoration of 1960. Today it is the council chamber of Grinzane, people get married here, the Cavalieri del Tartufo meet here and the auction is held here. The Sala degli Affreschi, the Hall of the Frescoes, has three bays with cross vaults painted after models by Giulio Romano, because until 1630 these lands belonged to the Gonzaga of Mantua, and it houses the permanent exhibition "Vino e salute", wine and health.
Point of interest · free entry · 44.65325, 7.99492
Via Castello 5, 12060 Grinzane Cavour (CN)
on the ground floor of the castle, opened on 27 November 1967: the first regional enoteca in Piedmont and the second in Italy. It sells the wines and grappas of the member wineries and the products of the area, sweet and savoury, and organises guided tastings with a sommelier, whose prices the website does not publish. The bottles of the Selezione dei Cavalieri del Tartufo e dei Vini di Alba, the order founded in 1967 in an inn in Grinzane, can only be bought from the Enoteca, here or in its online shop: every year a panel tastes the wines of the member wineries, keeps only the wines scoring at least 90 points out of 100, and their bottles carry the label of the Order and a number from 1 to 100. The enoteca charges no ticket, dogs are allowed on a lead and it can be reached in a wheelchair too.
Opening hours from April to October 10:00-19:00, from November to March 10:00-18:00; closed on Tuesday · 0173 262159 · castellogrinzane.com
an open air museum in the Count's vineyard, at the foot of the walls, opened in June 2021. It was curated by the historian and museologist Daniele Jalla and drawn by Luigi Piccatto: 65 panels and 110 illustrations tell, side by side, the year of the vine and the work of the winegrower, season by season. It has no barriers, it is lit even when the light is low and it is free. The coordinates are those of the belvedere on the walls: the sources do not give a marked entrance.
a belvedere of corten steel in the middle of the rows of the Vigna Gustava, with the vineyards and the castle in front. The panoramic route of 800 metres passes by it, about twenty minutes on foot, going from the castle to the In Vigna museum. It was made by the Fondazione CRC, which bought the vineyard and sells the Barolo that comes from it to fund social projects. Along the way there are signs and five QR codes that let you listen to the story of the place told by an actor playing Cavour, and posts for charging phones and electric bikes.
Opening hours always open · fondazionecrcdonare.it
the parish church, a few steps from the castle. The old church was rebuilt between 1636 and 1639 and enlarged in 1890; the terracotta façade, neoclassical, has four pilasters with Corinthian capitals, a large painted lunette and the pediment at the top, and the brick bell tower is squeezed between the church and the presbytery. It became a parish in 1833, on the initiative of the mayor Cavour. Inside are the decorations by Fedele Finati and the figures by Paolo Gaidano, both of 1895, the altars of Santa Lucia and San Bovo, and above the entrance the choir loft with the organ. The town says it can be entered during services.
Opening hours during religious services · 0173 063571
Piazza della Chiesa 12, 12060 Grinzane Cavour (CN)
down in Gallo d'Alba, on the town hall square. In 1910 it was a chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes; in 1929 two women of Gallo were healed, one at the grotto of Lourdes and one right here, and the chapel was enlarged, up to the church finished in 1947 to a design by the architect Dellapiana: all in exposed brick, with simple forms and stained glass windows. Inside are a large wooden Risen Christ by Filip Moroder Doss, the statue of the Immacolata that came from Lourdes in 1929 and a pipe organ by Piero Sandri.
Opening hours during religious services · 0173 063571
The castle's year has one day more important than the others, the day of the auction. In summer the park hosts a few concerts: in 2026, on Thursday 9 July, the Alba Jazz Festival opened here, with Emma Smith. The Truffle Fair is in Alba, and it is on Alba's page.
Asta Mondiale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba
the second Sunday of November
since 1999, in the Sala delle Maschere, the finest truffles are sold at auction together with large formats of Barolo and Barbaresco, linked up with other cities around the world, and the proceeds go to charity: since 1999 more than seven million seven hundred thousand euros. In 2026 it is the twenty seventh, on Sunday 8 November, with the historic venues of Hong Kong, Bangkok and Vienna and, new for this edition, Macao, London, Vilnius and Brasilia. The castle does not say whether the public can attend
Buon compleanno UNESCO
around 22 June
an evening concert at the castle for the anniversary of the inscription of the vineyard landscapes on the World Heritage list. In 2026 it was on Saturday 20 June at 21:30, with Chiara Galiazzo
Remember
Useful tips
The opening times of the town and those of the castle do not match: the town writes 9:30-19:00 from April to October and open on Tuesday too from 1 September to 15 November, the castle 10:00-19:00 and closed every Tuesday. The town also marks it closed for the whole of January, the castle does not. The castle's times are the ones that count, since it runs the place; on a Tuesday in autumn or winter, phone first, on 0173 262159
The via Bricco car park has three bays, it happens that they are taken by cars and the motorhomers' sites today mark it as closed: phone the town hall first, on 0173 262016. Anyone who needs to empty their tanks goes by Castiglione Falletto, which has the motorhome service point
The museum is walked round in three quarters of an hour; with the enoteca, In Vigna and the belvedere you need half a day. Dogs are allowed on a lead both in the museum and in the enoteca
To eat: in the castle there is Alessandro Mecca's restaurant, and a bar with a bistro at lunchtime; at the foot of the castle, in via XV Novembre, a trattoria and a wine bar
Grinzane is one of the eleven municipalities of Barolo, partly included. On the labels the village's vineyards can be recognised by their geographical mentions: Bablino, Borzone, Canova, Castello, Garretti, Gustava, La Corte and Raviole
The Langhe around are on other pages: Alba six kilometres away, with the Truffle Fair in autumn, Barolo and La Morra
Grinzane Cavour · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Taste
Bunet ends lunch all over the Langhe. The version cooked in a bain marie, in a mould lined with caramelised sugar, was written down in 1846 by a cook from Turin, Francesco Chapusot, in the years when Cavour was mayor here; the amaretti came at the end of the nineteenth century.
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
Grinzane Cavour in photographs
24 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
the castle of Grinzane at the top of the hill, seen from the belvedere of the Vigna Gustava among the autumn vineyardsPhoto: Mac9, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the castle of Grinzane at the top of the hill, above the rows of vines and the houses of the villagePhoto: Elio Pallard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Grinzane from above, the castle with the church of the Carmine beside it and the houses of the village in the middle of the vineyardsPhoto: Mikegw66, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the castle above the fog, with the trees and the bell tower of the church beside itPhoto: Elio Pallard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the castle and the houses of the village in the snow, at first light in the morningPhoto: Elio Pallard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the façade of the castle with the two round corbelled turrets at the cornersPhoto: Fabio Carassio, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the castle from the square, with the more massive block on the right and the towers behindPhoto: Sbisolo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the castle in the warm light of an autumn afternoonPhoto: Tomatis Davide, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the ramp that climbs to the castle along the boundary wall, with the flagsPhoto: Ysogo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the plaque of 1896 that remembers Cavour as mayor of Grinzane from May 1832 to February 1849Photo: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the central tower seen from the courtyard, the only place from which it can be seen wholePhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the inner courtyard, with the wooden galleries on the brick wallsPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the vineyards of the Langhe from a window of the castlePhoto: Caulfield, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a large wooden wine press in the room of peasant lifePhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the copper stills and the barrels, in the museumPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0one of the furnished rooms of the museum, with the sideboard, the hanging lamp and the armchairPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Cavour's bedroom, with the Empire style bed and the little steps that hid the chamber potPhoto: Termauri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Sala delle Maschere, which today is also the council chamberPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the wooden ceiling of 1547, with the masks painted between the beamsPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0two masks close up, the coat of arms with the red bull of the Belli and the portrait of a womanPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0one of the painted cross vaults of the Sala degli AffreschiPhoto: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the castle seen through a steel arch, in the vineyard below the wallsPhoto: Termauri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the garden at the foot of the castle and, at the far end, the church of the Carmine with its bell towerPhoto: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0inside the church of the Carmine, the choir loft with the organ above the entrancePhoto: GiacomoBarbero, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
