The kingdom of lavender on the rolling hills of the Langhe

Warning! Important note: this is a highly Instagram-worthy place! But don’t worry, even without Instagram, Sale San Giovanni is a feast for your eyes! The color purple as far as the eye can see. The scent of lavender everywhere. They call it the “little Provence of the Langa”, but here, perhaps even more so than in France, posing for a photo amongst the rows of lavender is a must! Sale San Giovanni is one of the many small villages in Alta Langa. For many years, the cultivation of lavender and medicinal plants has been the community’s main resource. This cultural tradition beautifies the hills with truly suggestive and unforgettable views.

Sale Langhe and Sale San Giovanni, the Twin Towns

Most residents live just below the small hill o which the other “Sale” rises.: the municipality of Sale Langhe. The official “split” on March 2, 1948, triggered by the rivalry between the fractions of Bricco and La Valle. At the top, there are only a handful of houses around the church tower, where you can still read the time.

Saracen hordes once roamed the land here, and the stones seem to tell their stories, as if they were still present. As you climb the hill, the roads are beautiful and easy and you can see the church getting closer. The fields along the roadside beckon you stop and dive into the seemingly endless lavender fields. The beautiful spectacle begins in spring and continues through the summer. Lavender is the symbol of San Giovanni, but there is another very interesting place nearby. Continue to the junction of the Liretto district. Here, you take a road which leads you through an increasingly wooded area and then turns into a gravel road.

Trees of the World in Sale San Giovanni

The sign reads Arboreto Prandi: In this truly unique piece of forest, botanical species from all over the world are concentrated on only a few hectares. There are rare plants that keep common orchards company. Here, and only here, do the Japanese sickle fir (Cryptomeria japonica), the silver spruce (Picea pungens), the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica), the dwarf palm (Chamaerops pungens) and the paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera) live together in harmony with the majestic Common beech (Fagus sylvatica), which is the symbol of the arboretum. A magical forest is waiting to be discovered!

Download the map of the hiking trails!

______

THE HERB FAIR
Every year on the last weekend in June, the municipality of Sale San Giovanni, in collaboration with the local tourist office, holds the “Non Solo Erbe” a medicinal and aromatic herb fair.

https://www.turismosalesangiovanni.it/
www.comune.salesangiovanni.cn.it