‘Look at the colour,” says tasting expert Carlo Veronese, sitting at a restaurant table in the village of Bosmenso. “Check how flexible it is, then give it a sniff and think about what you smell.” Only after we have given proper attention to appearance, structure and aroma do we taste the speciality before us.
We are not trying fine wines, however, but what many say is the world’s best salami: salame di Varzi, made in 15 villages around the town of the same name in south-east Lombardy.
With 3,000 inhabitants and eight centuries of towers, churches, porticos and a castle, Varzi is one of the jewels of the little-visited Oltrepò Pavese. Oltre means beyond, so this is the part of Pavia province south of the Po River, climbing from the wide valley into the green Appenines.
With 1,724-metre (5,656ft) Monte Lesima at its southern point, the Oltrepò is roughly the shape of a bunch of grapes – appropriate as this is an important winemaking area. It’s the world’s third-biggest producer of pinot noir grapes (after Burgundy and Champagne), yet although its vineyards are energetically promoted worldwide, few shout about its tourism potential.
Which is astonishing, as the area is as gorgeous as its nickname – the “Tuscany of the north” – suggests. Its green hills have a fairytale look, dotted as they are with castles and medieval abbeys, terracotta villages such as Fortunago, and remote homesteads. Visitor numbers have been rising since Covid forced Italians to make more of what’s on their doorstep, but are still low, as are prices, and it is possible to walk, cycle or drive for miles without seeing anyone.
Partly to work up an appetite but mainly because the Staffora valley merits slow exploration, we make for Varzi on two wheels, hiring bikes from Dionisio Cicli in Rivanazzano Terme. The Oltrepò’s biggest town, Voghera, on the mainline from Milan, is the starting point of the Greenway Voghera-Varzi, a 22-mile (35km) former railway perfect for relaxed cycling or walking.
We stop for coffee in Salice Terme, a 19th-century spa town with a huge park, then sweep on past Godiasco and Ponte Nizza, with its railway museum, to Bagnaria, a village of cherry orchards. In early summer, we cycle past trees laden with glossy fruits, and fields with matching red poppies. At a cherry festival on the second and third Sundays in June, visitors can sample the produce, applaud prizewinners and try cherry risotto with local wine.
The Oltrepò’s unspoilt nature shows in its impressive biodiversity: this area of just over 380 square miles has, for example, about double the number of species of butterfly as the UK, which has 59. There are several designated butterfly walks, but we spot beauties everywhere we look, in red, orange, yellow, pale green and dramatic black and white.
It’s quiet today, but we are riding what was a well-trodden trail. The Staffora valley formed part of the ancient Via del Sale, the trade route on which wool and weapons from the north of Italy were taken by mule over the Giovà pass to seaports in Liguria to exchange for precious salt for use in delicious salami, among other things.
We enter Varzi from the west, leaving the open Greenway for a maze of narrow alleys. The town’s importance as a waypoint on the salt route shows in its porticoed streets lined with three-storey merchants’ houses. Hidden in the centre is the 13th-century Castello Malaspina, recently reopened for weddings, events, guided tours and wine and salami tastings. Current owner Enrico Odetti, descended from the family that was given the land in 1164 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, has plans to add a dozen B&B rooms.
History records a 12th-century Marquis of Malaspina offering prized salame di Varzi to guests, and there are plenty of places in town where a 21st-century visitor can try it, but its home is in the countryside nearby. We head south to the hamlet of Bosmenso, where the fourth generation of the Buscone family (sisters Ornella, Roberta and Marina) make salami from semi-wild pigs free to rootle for acorns, and age it for at least three months, usually six. They also run the eponymous Buscone restaurant. “It’s in our DNA,” says Roberta.
As instructed by Carlo we note the rich red and pure white of the salami – cut on a diagonal with a knife – its aromas of grassy fields, crusty bread and mild garlic, and the sweet yet deeply savoury taste. It makes a perfect antipasto with pickled veg from their garden, plus glasses of Bonarda, the Oltrepò’s classic slightly sparkling red.
Over the following days we visit more wineries (see below) and eat extremely well, fuel for activities such as a circular five-mile walk through chestnut woods from the village of Moglie to the Sant’Alberto di Butrio hermitage, on a craggy hillside. The 10th-century complex is surrounded by roses, geraniums and beehives, and frescoes in one of its three chapels look as bright as they must have looked when painted 600 years ago. The route back takes in Pizzocorno village, famous for strong-smelling cheese made with milk from small, hardy vacca varzese cows.
Next day, we swap the middle ages for the mid-20th century at a brilliant gallery in Rivanazzano founded by locally born Franco Riccardi (artartnews.com, €10/£8.50pp), who has spent the past 50 years putting together a treasure house, in a former wine warehouse, of paintings and sculptures from the 1930s to 70s.
There is also a modern art museum at Castello dal Verme in the east of the Oltrepò. Seems whether it’s pork, wine, untrodden hills or fine canvases, this corner of Lombardy has good living off to a fine art.
Wineries
At Cà del Ge, among high green hills, sisters Sara and Stefania, daughters of founder winemaker Enzo Padroggi, make quality rieslings from grapes normally associated with Germany, and 5,000 bottles a year of méthode champenoise sparkling. Travaglino, a former monastery on the wooded slopes of Monte Ceresino, uses pinot noir for more deep-flavoured “champagne” but we also like a simpler red Pernero tasting of wild strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Castello di Luzzano is presided over by winemaker and sculptor Giovanella Fugazza, who has worked for more than 40 years on the estate developed by her father. A spider made of wire, bike chain, spark plugs and oyster shells sits in the courtyard, and her wine labels are all modern masterpieces. Up winding lanes in the Ardivestra valley is family-owned Castello di Stefanago, where Giacomo Baruffaldi cultivates 20 hectares of organic biodynamic vineyards. We particularly like his Ancestrale 36 sparkling rosé.
Restaurants
In the hill village of Nazzano, Il Belvedere lives up to its name with sweeping views over the Staffora valley and traditional food (plenty for vegetarians), served by owner Stefano Migliora. As well as its charcuterie, Ristorante Buscone, near Varzi, offers homemade pastas and mains such as roast duck with garden veg, or delicious caramelised pork ribs. In Salice Terme, the kitchen at Il Caminetto is run by Giovanna Torti, still rattling the pans at 82. Specialities are risotto with sweet yellow peppers from Voghera, and baked-to-order cannoncini, pastry tubes filled with cream.
Where to stay
Accommodation in the area is slowly increasing as tourism develops. Castello di Luzzano has four romantic doubles in what used to be a salt route tollhouse, from €130 including breakfast on a shady terrace. Near the Greenway in Godisaco, Ristorante Italia is a great pizzeria with B&B in simple rooms from €90. The Terme spa at Rivanazzano has serene, well-equipped apartments from €99 per person, including spa entry, treatments from €20.
The trip was provided by the Oltrepò Wine and Tourism Consortium
