Castagnole delle Lanze, a municipality nestled in the hills in the province of Asti, just a few kilometres from Neive, Barbaresco and the city of Alba, besides having being awarded an Orange Flag by the Italian Touring Club, it is now one of the latest Piedmontese villages to be added to the "Most Beautiful Villages of Italy" list.
The narrow, cobbled streets, the historic centre with its ancient buildings, the porticoes with wine-coloured vaults that describe the area, and the 19th-century tower overlooking the panorama of the UNESCO buffer zone of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato wine-growing landscapes, have crowned this village of just over three thousand inhabitants as one of the national beauties. From 20 to 23 April, however, this small capital of Barbera and Moscato wines and the Tonda Gentile delle Langhe hazelnut will also be the scene of the scents and flavours of spring, with the unprecedented and original event "Fior di Lanze", entirely dedicated to the world of flowers and essences: to be smelled and tasted in dishes, syrups and cocktails made with coloured petals; to be listened to in a sensory concert and a theatrical reading; to be leafed through in a dedicated book; to be explored through olfactory and cooking workshops and to be admired with floral-themed displays.
It is all immersed in an open-air museum amidst the fascinating local traditions: elastic ball, the festival of protest song, murals, country chapels, historic buildings, the Ligurian-Piedmontese Baroque parish church, the Barbera Festival in May and the Hazelnut Fair in August, art and breathtaking views over the hills to the Alps.
The "Fior di Lanze" initiative is organised by the municipal administration with the contribution of Fida Candies and the support of Le Terre dei Savoia association, and organised in partnership with the Piedmont Region, Múses - European Academy of Essences, the Comunità delle Colline tra Langa e Monferrato union, the Patrimonio dei Paesaggi Vitivinicoli di Langhe-Roero e Monferrato association, I Ristoranti della Tavolozza association and the Langhe Monferrato Roero tourist board.