From the Spa Town to the Farm for a Return to Peace: A Weekend in Acqui Terme - I

There are towns whose beauty is enhanced also by the landscape around them, and the pleasure of visiting them begins along the road you take to reach them: Acqui Terme is one of these. To reach this famous spa town of the Alto Monferrato, we take the Turchino road that climbs from Genoa Voltri to Ovada and from there leads to Acqui Terme through a breathtaking landscape that stretches between endless vineyards, colourful villages and medieval castles. The villages we encounter before reaching Acqui are also steeped in a particular charm of mystery thanks to the apparitions of the Madonna and miraculous events that occurred centuries ago in the nearby villages of Molare and Cremolino, as testified by the sanctuaries erected on the places that became sacred.

As soon as we reach the Ponte Carlo Alberto, over the Bormida river, we notice the remains of the Roman Aqueduct, one of the symbolic monuments of the town. From the bridge you can clearly see the fifteen pillars and the four gigantic arches that remind the people of Acqui of their glorious spa tradition, which continues successfully today in the town's spa establishments. The thermal springs of Acqui Terme indeed enjoyed considerable prestige already in Roman times: the Latin writer Pliny the Elder even recalls them among the most important of the Roman world. After the aqueduct we go to see the water: that of the Bollente, the most famous monument of the town. It is a splendid marble aedicule built in 1879 by the architect Giovanni Cerutti, inside which the boiling and healing water flows: 560 litres a minute at 74.5 degrees, of a sulphurous-salt-bromine-iodine water.

The motto of Acqui Terme is "Arte et Marte", that is with skill and with force. Acqui gave birth to several artists over the course of history, including Ginevra Scatilazzi, a famous sixteenth-century woman of letters who, on the occasion of the visit of Pope Paul III Farnese, addressed him in perfect Latin, arousing the pontiff's amazement. To move to our own times, the folk rock band Yo Yo Mundi are from Acqui Terme; they have even performed on the prestigious stage of the Premio Tenco with their poetic songs in which they often pay homage to their town and to Monferrato. For the little ones, on the other hand, the art of Acqui offers adventure novels for children, written by the Acqui-born author Pierdomenico Baccalario.

Among the other splendid monuments that testify to the history of the town, we visit the Castle of the Palaeologus, mentioned as early as 1056, which today houses the Archaeological Museum, while among the religious buildings we admire the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, dating back to the 10th century, and the wonderful Benedictine Abbey of San Pietro, of early Christian origins, dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.