History, Tradition and Good Food between the Salt Road and the Silk Road: A Day in Tortona

The story

Setting off for the sea from the big city is always in some way a little adventure. It becomes even more so if halfway, when we have just left the Po Valley behind and the first hills of the Alessandria area begin to appear in the distance, a lion suddenly appears... A silver lion, on a fiery red background, holding between its paws a silver leafy, flowering rose, and whose strength, as tradition has it, is three gifts: valour, loyalty and courtesy. This is the famous lion of Tortona, a city once called Derthona, whose motto, since Roman times, is: "Pro tribus donis simil Terdona leonis", that is, Tortona is like a lion, by virtue of three gifts.

In reality, if you decide to leave the motorway at the Tortona toll booth and treat yourself, as we did, to a lovely weekend in this city, the gifts can be decidedly more than three, given the artistic richness, as well as the landscape and food and wine richness, of Tortona and the splendid hills that surround it. The city of the lion lies in a strategic geographical position, a fact that over the centuries has been partly its cross and partly its fortune. A crossroads of trade, a flourishing agricultural centre already in Roman times, today close to the main metropolises of the north and easily reachable from cities such as Milan, Turin or Genoa, over the course of history Tortona was also fiercely contested by various powers. Our walk in the centre begins at the Duomo, built in the second half of the 16th century on a pre-existing church.

Inside we admire, besides paintings by 16th- and 17th-century artists such as Aurelio Luini and Camillo Procaccini, the relics of Saint Marcian, the saint to whom, according to tradition, the city owes its conversion to Christianity. Tortona has been a bishopric since the earliest times, and between the 13th and 14th centuries the Templars were also present in the city. Among the legends concerning the religious order wrapped in mystery, one stands out: the hypothesis that even the Holy Grail was kept in the city for a certain period, and it was precisely thanks to this privilege that Tortona obtained the three gifts: the body, the blood and the spirit. What is certain is that the church of San Giacomo, built at the behest of Cardinal Guidobono Cavalchini at the end of the 18th century, stands on the remains of an ancient Templar house.

Nothing remains of the ancient church but the memory and the mysteries, and the former via San Giacomo, dedicated to the protector of pilgrims, today bears the name of Lorenzo Perosi, the famous Tortona-born composer of sacred music. The artistic and cultural heritage of the centuries of history of the Tortona diocese is preserved in the structures of the Diocesan Cultural Centre of Tortona, which includes, besides the diocesan archive and library, the Diocesan Museum, located in via Seminario, in the building that once housed the archiepiscopal seminary. The characteristic streets of Tortona, which at times recall those of Ligurian historic centres, wind among bends and gentle slopes among houses with flowered balconies, the walls of ancient churches and the shop windows of charming little shops.

In front of the oratory of San Rocco we meet a group of students on a school trip who, like us, take photos of the facade of the religious building. Continuing on, we reach the church of Santa Maria Canale, the oldest in the city, dating back to the 11th-12th century. Inside there are Renaissance frescoes, as well as interesting 16th- and 17th-century paintings, including a Nativity of the Leonardesque school. Painterly art has always accompanied Tortona's history; in fact the city gave birth to more than one important painter, including Angelo Barabino, a pupil and friend of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, and Cesare Saccaggi. The weekend we spend in Tortona also gives us the chance to visit the Pinacoteca of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, in corso Leoniero, next to the Duomo.

The permanent exhibition documents, through more than eighty works, an Italian artistic season of significant importance between the 19th and 20th centuries. Over the course of history the Tortona area was also crossed by the routes of the Salt Road, an ancient trade link between Liguria and the Po Valley. When we reach our accommodation for this weekend, we discover that, in a certain sense, besides the Salt Road, the Silk Road also passed through here. Our lodging is in fact at the Casa della Seteria Sironi, a palazzo of breathtaking beauty, located in the historic centre, in via Ottone Calcinara. We park the car in the characteristic carriage courtyard and, once inside, we are welcomed with great kindness by the owner, Mr Gianni Respighi, who tells us the history of this home.

"Originally the area where this palazzo stands was occupied by the Franciscan convent of Santa Chiara, founded in the 13th century. After Napoleon Bonaparte suppressed the city's monasteries, this convent too began its decline. It was broken up among various owners and in time almost entirely demolished. Fortunately the part located in via Calcinara was saved and later became the home of the Sironi family. In fact, around the second half of the 19th century it was Francesco Sironi, originally from Briosco in Brianza, who bought the Tortona silk mill from the Banca Fiorentina Industriale Serica to start a flourishing yarn-production business, bringing the ancient Brianza tradition of the art of spinning to Tortona too".

As we are shown to our rooms, we can immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the late 19th century, thanks to the many original details, carefully preserved during the recent renovation. The life of the Sironi family, steeped in elegance and style but also in cheerfulness and love of the arts and of music, envelops us as we observe the furniture, the decorative pieces and the works of art, including several sculptures partly from faraway countries visited by the Sironis during their many travels. The Sironi family, and in particular Franca and Fernando, grandchildren of the founder Francesco, wanted the Casa della Seteria Sironi to become a place open to the public as a house-museum, a wish also supported by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona.

The house has six rooms, each with a name and a theme capable of making us dream, such as the Le Grand Tour room, La Boheme, or the suites dedicated to Fernando or Teresa. One of our rooms lets us directly experience the former owners' passion for music, also testified by the presence in the house of many early-20th-century sheet-music scores and a vertical piano: the room is called "45 giri" and indeed it keeps a collection of vinyl records, as well as a magnetic tape recorder from 1960s Italy: the Gelosino. In the elegant spaces of the historic home, the plunge into the past goes hand in hand with the availability of modern services, such as high-speed Wi-Fi. Near our rooms we also find a kitchen corner to conveniently prepare a tea, an infusion or a coffee.

Between discovering the city and relaxing at the Casa della Seteria Sironi, we also want to enjoy the good food of the area, and we do so by dining at the Vineria Derthona, in via Lorenzo Perosi. "We opened the Vineria in 1999, while the Casa di Seteria Sironi was added only a year ago," Mr Gianni explains as we settle at our table in the characteristic room of the wine bar. We immediately notice that here too we are in a historic palazzo, and we will soon discover that we have landed in a place not only renowned for its cuisine and its wines but also very fascinating, which holds intriguing stories. Weaving is involved this time too, but in this case it is not silk but wool; in fact, in the 17th-century palazzo that houses the Vineria, a male convent of the Humiliati friars once operated.

Their main activity consisted of teaching the art of wool weaving, but the friars were not only known for their skill and refined craftsmanship; they had also acquired a certain reputation as able merchants. At a certain point the bishop Saint Charles Borromeo considered that a line had been crossed, and sent envoys to regularise the friars' activity, which had become a little too commercial for a religious order. The bishop's initiative, however, was not taken at all well by the friars, who arranged to welcome the envoys with nothing less than a hitman. A clumsy hitman, though, whose shots barely grazed the poor envoys. In response, Saint Charles Borromeo suppressed the order. If Tortona's history offers us such succulent titbits, its cuisine is no less, though decidedly more relaxing.

Our dinner in the spirit of the flavours of an area of great traditions but also of borders, where Ligurian, Piedmontese, Lombard and Emilian influences mix, begins with a rich selection of cured meats and cheeses. The Vineria offers land-based cooking, to which are added a few dishes based on preserved fish, faithfully to the tradition of the Salt Road that has always brought to Piedmontese tables delicacies such as the anchovies that we too taste, this time with lard and butter. We also very much like the pancetta cooked with Russian salad and small artichokes. We continue with the exquisite ravioli with Derthona sauce, and some of our friends can't even resist a nice warm peasant soup with black cabbage.

We wash down these delights with excellent wines chosen from 450 labels that include bottles from just about all over Italy, in which the area's wineries will play an ever more important role. We accompany our dinner mainly with Barbera, but someone also tastes a good Dolcetto, and those who prefer white opt for Timorasso or perhaps a few good glasses from Alto Adige. Among the main courses we enjoy fine braised meats, but the roast veal shank also wins us over, along with the stewed veal with mushrooms; and of course we can't give up two dishes linked to the area either: a very Piedmontese grilled fassona steak, and rabbit in the pan with Taggiasca olives, pine nuts and rosemary, to look a little towards Liguria.

After this weekend full of emotions we return to the big city, happy to have recharged our batteries and to have discovered places we will happily return to for a few lovely, pleasant days, smooth as silk.