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While the real strength of Monforte is the town itself, Barolo and Grinzane Cavour - also set within vineyards - revolve around their castles. In other words, the towns do not really exist, at least in terms of tourists offer: the overwhelming attraction is the looming fortress with its adjacent Regional wine cellar, where one can taste and buy good wines. That is where the similarities end, though: in everything else, Barolo and Grinzane are completely different. The latter towers above the vineyards that Count Camillo Benso, for one, was fond of growing when his father sent him to run the family estate and, while he was there, serve as Mayor. The castle contains many of the Count's objects and memorabilia, as well as finely decorated rooms like that of the Masks, featuring an exposed beam ceiling painted in the 16th century and then forgotten, or the Museum of the Langhe, housing traditional objects and utensils. Clearly written explanations make up for the somewhat muddled themes. Embellished with passages from books by Langhe writers, the room where every year the Grinzane award ceremony used to take place (in the past, sadly) has a window with a spacious view over the vineyards that is really not to be missed. Also worth a visit, for different reasons, is the Falletti Castle in Barolo: as you read these pages, the new Wi Mu (Wine Museum) is being set up in its interior after many years of renovation works. We saw a preview of it with the floor still covered with plastic and tape. What can we say? It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience in every respect. François Confino, the architect who designed it, imagined an immersion in the history, culture, and imagery of wine as no one else had done before. Just to give you an idea, in one of the small rooms you can listen to songs about wine; in another one, paintings about wine are projected, and in a third one two chefs discuss wine from two displays facing each other. It remains to be seen whether all of the futuristic exhibits set up by Confino will work properly. We await your feedback.
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