Places we love to share with you in the Oltrepo Pavese

The places below are just a snippet of the daily experiences we share with guests on our tours. Each day offers new insights into local Italian culture, and surprises and pleasures that can’t be planned! 



The Oltrepo’ Pavese – (The Other side of the Po)

If you want to see every shade of green there is in the world, then come to the Oltrepo Pavese. The lush greenery of the fields and rolling hills will amaze you. The Oltrepo’ Pavese rivals the beauty of Tuscany, with its orchards, vineyards and plethora of medieval villages and castles. The food is authentic, and the wines are excellent. Although the Oltrepo’ is one of the largest wine producing regions in all of Italy, it is still relatively unknown, which makes it a great ‘off-the-beaten-track’ place to visit. We are sure you will fall in love with this place, just as we have.

Rustic picnic, salami cellar visit, and ravioli making experience all in one! We are incredibly lucky to have a wealth of high-quality restaurants in and around Varzi. One such restaurant is Il Buscone, run by the Buscone family for the last 50 years. It is situated in a tiny little hamlet near Varzi. This restaurant features in the Michelin Guide every year, and is an excellent place to sample quality, local dishes. As well as dining here, we have an afternoon of fun with the Buscone family, who very generously give their time to show us their salami cellars. We are also given a lesson in how they make their famous ravioli and then to top it all off, we head off for a walk to their country retreat where they set up an outdoor table for a delightful afternoon snack- usually consisting of their homemade salami, homemade wine, almond biscuits (secret recipe!), local bread, and roasted chestnuts when in season. The family has a way of making us feel like honoured guests, when all the while we are only so grateful to get to experience these special treats! 



Salami cellar at Il Buscone



The pretty town of Fortunago has only 380 inhabitants, yet it is in a group known as the most beautiful villages of Italy. It is perched on the steep slope of a hill, dominated by the church and town hall. The streets are typically medieval, wedged between stone walls. The residents take pride in the stone houses which are decorated with balconies, windowsills, and verandas. The upper part of the town, in addition to its well-manicured landscape, offers breathtaking views of the surrounding hills. We often picnic in the park after exploring the streets of this beautiful town.



One of the well-manicured houses of Fortunago



Monte Penice has an elevation of 1460 metres above sea level and sits in the Apennine Mountain range. It attracts ski lovers in the winter and bush walkers and picnickers in the summer as it is always relatively cool, even in the warmest summers. It has a beautiful natural habitat of conifer woods and oaks. One of the most popular itineraries is the medieval path for the Santuario of Monte Penice, that connects Bobbio (in the Province of Piacenza) to the shrine of Santa Maria, on the top of the mountain at 1460m above sea level. This point straddles the border between Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. We have fun walking part of this pretty path on tour. It is a memorable, scenic walk with views of the Trebbia valley below.



Building up an appetite on our walk down into the Trebbia valley



Varzi is a small medieval village, which sits at the bottom of Monte Penice. It was founded in the tenth century, and there, time seems to have stopped for the historical town centre. The town was Jim’s dad’s hometown, and it has a nice mix of stylish cafes and shops. It is the home base for many of our tours. Varzi is popular with people from Milan who come to escape the city's summer heat. Our guests love making this town their own - finding their favourite bar for aperitivo, getting bargains at the weekly market, and mixing with the locals. The popularity of Varzi is in part also due to a local product with the important DOP status - the delicious Salame di Varzi!



On our way to our favourite Pasticceria in Varzi



Wines from the Oltrepò Pavese are prestigious and famous all over Italy. The vines benefit from an excellent microclimate (thanks to its proximity to the Po); well-drained soils rich in clay and limestone, and a terroir often compared to that of Barolo. The Oltrepo produces more than half of the wine coming from Lombardy, and it’s not far behind Asti and Chianti in terms of volume of production. The area is also considered the Pinot Noir capital of Italy, as there are almost 9880 acres of this variety under vine (around 80% of Italy’s Pinot Noir grapes are grown here). Although the climate here can lead to this grape ripening too early, it is well suited to the Pinot Noir needed for the sparkling wines. Our favourite winery is Ca’ del Ge, which is a family run winery that we have been visiting for the past 20 years -16 of them with our guests. We have watched the younger generation grow-up and continue to make the winery the welcoming, high-quality place that it is today. 



Wine tasting at our favourite winery in the Oltrepo - Ca Del Ge’



Zavattarello is considered one of the ‘most beautiful villages’ of Italy and you will soon understand why by walking through its streets and exploring its alleys. The village of Zavattarello is one of the oldest in the Oltrepo’, and is dominated by the Dal Verme castle, built during the tenth century. A steep climb to the castle provides a rewarding panorama of the village, the 79-hectare natural park surrounding the castle, and the farmland beyond. Many of our guests have commented on the steep nature of the paved streets here. Our egos are often dinted walking up these hills, after we are passed by one of the brisque-walking local elderly residents whilst we stop for a short break to get our breath back! 



The Dal Verme castle dominates the landscape of the medieval village of Zavatarello