On the trail of the cycling champions: A day in Novi Ligure

“Go, Girardengo, go, great champion, nobody follows you along that highway,” sang Francesco De Gregori some years ago, and since the destination of this trip of ours is precisely the birthplace of Costante Girardengo, one of the greatest Italian cycling champions of all time, it's only natural to hum this song. We were lucky to arrive in Novi Ligure on a mild, sunny day despite the winter season, and even though it isn't the season for big races, on the main road from Ovada to Novi we saw dozens of professional cyclists training, clear proof that the memory of the great champions linked to Novi is still very much alive. Fausto Coppi, though born in nearby Castellania, often trained on the roads of Novi and his name is also inextricably linked to the city.

The first stop of our day is, indeed, the Museo dei Campionissimi, the largest cycling museum in Europe, which across a full three thousand square metres pays tribute to the world of two wheels. In the Sala dei Campionissimi we admired a series of relics and memorabilia linked to Coppi and Girardengo, while in the Virtual Reality Room we tried our hand as cyclists ourselves on computerised bikes. Approaching Novi Ligure, some large signs along the main road inform tourists of the city's main attractions, among them the painted palaces and chocolate. Novi, situated on the northern slopes of the Ligurian Apennines, among the hills of the Alto Monferrato, planted with vines or covered by often unspoiled woods, in the 17th and 18th centuries was a holiday town for wealthy Genoese families including the Doria, the Balbi and the Spinola.

Their palaces, all highly decorated and painted in various colours, are a tourist attraction recalled even in some 18th-century French chronicles. The most important painted palace in the city is Palazzo Negroni, which also has two sundials, one of them based on the French revolutionary calendar. If via Girardengo, which leads here, is a lively shopping street with many small shops, from clothing to giftware, on reaching Piazza delle Piane, where Palazzo Negroni stands, you instead experience an atmosphere of other times, steeped in art also thanks to the presence of a lovely fountain, as well as the splendid Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Continuing our tour of the centre we also admired the imposing Church of San Nicolò, as well as the 14th-century Church of Sant'Andrea, which was once probably linked to the Castle.

Climbing up beside the church you reach the remains of the Castle and the old city walls, and at the top of the hill you can admire the Tower, built in the 13th century. At this point all that remained was to get to know the chocolate and the sweets, as suggested by the tourist sign. Besides buying quite a few bars of genuine Novi chocolate in the centre, for our dinner too we wanted to choose a place that inspired sweetness: and so we arrived at Ristorante Bunet, on Via Marconi. “This is a historic establishment; once the Ristorante Bologna was here. We took over this place three years ago, giving the restaurant a fresh, young feel,” Marta and Giuseppe, the owners, tell us as we take our seats in the dining room, furnished with refined elegance. As well as being in the city of chocolate, we are also in the land of tasty Monferrato cuisine, rich in Ligurian influences.

So we start with an abundant raw seafood starter, with oysters, prawns, langoustines and tartufi, followed by a cooked starter with gratinated anchovies, scallops, razor clams, mussels and octopus. Some of our friends instead opt for a land-based tasting of typical local products, among them the filetto baciato and cheeses such as Castelmagno and robiole. We go on with other seafood and meat specialities, according to preference, choosing the tagliolini with shellfish, the pappardelle with lobster, the seafood paella, while our meat-loving friends take the very typical homemade agnolotti with truffle and the corsetti “al toc”, that is “al tocco”, a Novi dish with sausage and mushrooms. Then come the fassone fillet and a lovely sliced beef for our friends, while the rest of the group has the grilled fish and the mixed fried fish.

Some of us share a fantastic freshly caught turbot between four. We wash it all down with an excellent local Barbera and Dolcetto. We close this lovely day on a sweet note with the bunet, which we enjoy in both its varieties: besides the classic white bunet, also the one with hazelnuts. We'll return to Novi Ligure in the warm season too, and next time, besides tasting again the good things of these lands, we may even take a nice bike ride through the hills.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Bunet Via Marconi, 83 Novi Ligure (AL) 0143/79314 Closed on Thursdays