To the left of the River Tanaro, just a few kilometres from Alba, the hills of the Roero unwind amidst a tangle of intersecting valleys and hollows in a succession of rounded knolls, with slopes that are at times gentle and at others inaccessible.
In the myriad of animal and plant fossils to be found – sometimes in extensive banks - on the sheer walls, the final stages of the Po sea and the botanics of a hotter climate than today’s can be studied.
The crops are highly diversified and alternate with woods that cover one sixth of the entire area. The vineyards, though, hold sway from their vantage point on the hillsides: here since olden times and widely-planted since the early 1900’s, the varieties include Nebbiolo, which softens in the Roero, Barbera, and other rarer vines, such as Arneis and Favorita,