The Gavi area has historically been more Ligurian than Piedmontese. Pro¬of of this is the imposing castle of Gavi: originally Roman, and turned by the Genoese in the late 16th-and early 17th -century into a fortress to defend the roads leading from the seaports to the Po Valley.

Like all “in-between” lands, Gavi has retained its somewhat wild, untamed nature. The nearby Val Curo¬ne and Capanne di Marcarolo Nature Park, for instance, are natural areas of Apennine beauty, somewhere between hill and mountain, sea and hinterland. But the scenery of the Oltregiogo - as this region was once called - is dominated by castles, the remains of dozens of feudal settlements which each took its share of the abundant natural resources: woods, streams, vineyards and fields to be culti¬vated. The soils are alluvial in character, a mixture of clay, gravel, sandstone and white marl, which give Gavi its fresh mi¬neral notes.