Dogliani

Dogliani sits on the western edge of the Langhe, sixty kilometers southeast of Torino. The town is built in two parts: the Borgo on the valley floor along the Rea stream, and the hill settlement above it that still keeps its medieval shape. The land around both is planted in Dolcetto, and the vineyards climb from the stream up toward the ridges where the wine cellars sit.

The lower town and the upper town read as two different eras occupying one place: the Borgo organized around its parish church and the stream, the hill settlement holding onto a keep and stone houses from an older layout. A local architect worked mostly in the nineteenth century and left his mark across both parts of town, so the eclectic civic and religious buildings he designed sit alongside the medieval stonework rather than replacing it. A president born here founded a wine estate in the hills above town, and the cellars he started are still producing today, linking the town's political history back to the same slopes that give it its wine. What holds Dogliani together is that its wine, its architecture and its most famous native son are not separate stories but the same hillside seen from different angles: a small commune whose vines, buildings and history all trace back to the ground between the stream and the hill.