Agliè is a small town in the Canavese, the hilly district north of Turin that spreads between the Po plain and the mouths of the Alpine valleys, and its castle is far grander than the town around it. Begun as a medieval fortress by the San Martino counts, it was transformed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into a baroque residence and later bought by the House of Savoy, who turned it into a summer palace with richly decorated rooms, a chapel, a theatre and a large park with fountains and a lake. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, a ring of palaces around Turin, and Italian television viewers may recognise it from a popular costume drama filmed there.
The Canavese has plenty of character. The poet Guido Gozzano spent time in a villa at Agliè and wrote about its gardens with gentle irony. Nearby Castellamonte has a long tradition of ceramics, especially the big terracotta stoves that once heated Piedmontese homes. Ivrea, a little to the north, is known for the Olivetti company town, also on the UNESCO list, and for its carnival, when teams pelt each other with oranges in a mock battle.
The riding is excellent, with variety on every side. The hills around Agliè are crossed by quiet country roads, winding through vineyards, woods and villages, with the morainic ridge of the Serra d'Ivrea on the horizon. To the northwest, the Valle Orco leads up into the Gran Paradiso National Park, with a spectacular climb toward the Colle del Nivolet, a high road among lakes and glaciers that is open only in summer and sometimes restricted to traffic on certain days. Traffic is light, but watch for tractors and gravel on the smaller roads.
Agliè is a small town with cafés and a few restaurants, and Castellamonte, five kilometres away, has fuel and supermarkets. Try the local wine, Erbaluce di Caluso, a crisp white, or a red Canavese. For food, look for agnolotti, tajarin and, in the cold months, bagna càuda, a hot dip of garlic, anchovies and olive oil, eaten with vegetables.