A walk through Castellero, Italy

Hello, Hive!
This is my first post in this community. I've seen some stunning pictures and lovely travel destinations being shared over here and today I'd like to make my humble contribution.

The idea of pinning the posts to the world map and see it grow over time is great and since there's not really too many in my area I decided to blog about some places I enjoy.

I'd like to show you Castellero, a small and unassuming town near where I grew up located in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.
It's a simple place, tied to its rural traditions, but quite neat and serene.

The tour I'll be giving starts from the town square, one of the only distinguishable urban features as the town is perched up on a hill and there's virtually just one winding road climbing up it and most of the houses are otherwise scattered throughout the village.

From the town square you can admire the main church with its bell tower as well as a tower of a separate building on the right, which is more medieval in nature.

Facing the church we also have the town hall, the only administrative building in this area.

Nearby we also have a sculpture of some hazelnuts, the most notable local product, and the statue of one of the patron saints of the township.

A more modern installation is the plaque you see above that serves to inform the visitors as to the names of the alpine peaks they may see in the distance on a nice day with clear skies.

The most recognizable of those mountains is for sure Monviso with its characteristic and quite pronounced "A" shape.

The whole area is sparsely populated and whenever you get on top of a nice hill like this one you can get a splendid view of the valleys below and the luscious greenery surrounding everything.

Moving on from the town square and walking up and down the main road you can find a few small chapels along the way.

The mural art is one of the cutest features one can notice walking around this town as there's a whole bunch of these painted on the buildings.

I think these murals add a lot of character to the town and finding them all becomes a fun game for the visitors. The paintings are simple but charming and they illustrate the local traditions quite well.

Bigger and much more surreal in nature is this other mural painting I found as I went on with my walk. The mural in itself is nice but it clashes a bit too much with the overarching theme of simple country life, don't you think? 🌊🌊🌊

Along the way you can find this rest area with picnic tables that allow travelers to relax in the shade.

Together with more traditional benches you also have this more ornate one with several wooden sculptures.

Along with the murals, these carvings show great effort from the locals in providing something quirky and thematic for the visitors.

It's not something you would necessarily see as much in nearby towns and I think it makes Castellero ( an otherwise simple and unassuming village ) really stand out and impress people that stop by it.

Of course the nature surrounding the town is just as important as the features above, if not more, and makes it a charming setting for a walk or three. 😉

Hopefully the beauty of these images speaks for itself.

I continued my walk going down from the hill on which the town lies upon and then up again on an adjacent hill. It was indeed a nice walk and throughout all of it I was accompanied by the constant chirping of crickets, the somber and intermittent sound of a woodpecker doing some wood carving of his own as well as the calls of many other birds.

Once I scaled the hill I could see Castellero and his key landmarks from a new perspective.

As I looped around the winding roads I could find some signs along the way too.

One was a colorful map of the town area and the trails running around it.

This other one had some informations about the various pests and diseases that can affect the local hazelnuts and how to deal with such problems. There were a couple of other signs such as this one that displayed the machinery employed to harvest and refine these products.

As I kept going forward I found this neat little altar as well as a neat, little rest area with some more wood carvings.

My last finding before turning back was these benches set under this evergreen.
They might be a nice for the locals to sit on at dusk but the area is otherwise comically out in the open and that poor tree ( it's doing whatever it can ) can hardly provide much shelter from the blistering sun.

At this intersection of country roads I found a neat chapel surrounded by shrubs and flowers.

In short, the perfect spot to stop and rest at for a few minutes.
The little church was open and I took a few pictures of what was inside as well.

Just a simple painting on the ceiling but the colors are still beautiful!
As for San Bovo, I'm not quite sure what his story might be.
Quite the unusual saint, carrying around that standard with a cow on it. 🐄⁉️

That concludes the overview of my highly enjoyable walk through Castellero and the nearby areas.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I found the scenery and all the little details scattered around for visitors quite neat but what did you think about it??

Do let me know!
I've been for a few years on Hive but I'm quite new to the blogging side of it.
I'd love any feedback, either positive or negative, so feel free to reach out in the comments or through private messages to give me pointers and such.