Big Benches in Monferrato: Not Just a Photo to Collect, but an Invitation to Discover the Territory

Can a giant bench really help people discover a region?

by Simona Gotta - Monfreedom Guide When the first Big Benches began appearing across the hills of Piedmont, probably no one imagined just how popular they would become. Today, some people plan entire weekends around their locations, buy the official passport, collect stamps and search for one bench after another.

But there is one aspect that, as a hiking guide, I find even more interesting: a Big Bench can be a destination, but above all it can become a reason to start walking.

And that is exactly how I like to include them in our excursions in Monferrato.

Not as something to reach by car, photograph in five minutes and leave behind while rushing to the next one, but as a destination that gains meaning through the journey that takes us there.

Because, very often, the best part begins long before the bench itself.

It all began in Piedmont with a change of perspective

The first official Big Bench was created in 2010 in Clavesana, in the Langhe area, from an idea by American designer Chris Bangle, who had chosen Piedmont as the place where he wanted to live and work.

The idea is extremely simple: take an everyday object such as a normal bench and make it enormous.

But the real project is not the bench itself.

It is what happens when we sit on it.

Our feet no longer touch the ground, our bodies suddenly seem small and, for a few minutes, we return to the perspective of a child. Yet in front of us there is no playground: there are hills, vineyards, woods, mountains, bell towers and villages.

It is a small change of scale that transforms the way we look at the landscape around us.

It is no coincidence that one of the ideas behind the Big Bench Community Project is precisely this: to become a child again and rediscover the landscape from a different point of view.

Since the first installation, the project has grown enormously. Today, there are hundreds of official Big Benches in Italy and abroad.

Yet the connection with the hills of Piedmont remains especially strong.

Why Big Benches work so well in Monferrato

Monferrato almost seems designed for them.

The landscape here does not impose itself through dramatic mountain walls or spectacular scenery that immediately overwhelms the eye. It is a subtler territory, made up of rolling hills, ridgelines, vineyards, small woods and villages that appear one after another on the horizon.

You have to stop.

Look.

Learn to recognise what is in front of you.

From a panoramic viewpoint, you can read the orientation of the vineyards, spot a castle on the opposite ridge, recognise the Tanaro plain and, on clear days, see the Alps appearing far away in the distance.

A well-positioned Big Bench does exactly this: it makes us stop.

And perhaps that is one of its greatest values in an age when even tourism risks becoming a rapid sequence of places to photograph.

The real experience begins when we leave the car behind

And yet, this is also where a small contradiction appears.

Big Benches have become so popular that some people look for them almost as if they were collector’s items: park the car, take a photo, get the stamp, drive away and move on to the next one.

That is certainly one way to experience them, but in my opinion it means missing a large part of what they can offer.

The original philosophy of the project favours panoramic places that are freely accessible and integrated into the landscape. Reaching the bench by car is not essential. In fact, walking to it is completely in keeping with the spirit of the project.

And that is exactly what we try to do during our excursions.

The Big Bench becomes the destination, but along the way there may be vineyards, a country church, woodland, a chapel, a farmhouse, a historic village or simply a panoramic ridge where it is worth stopping for a few moments.

When we finally reach the bench, that photograph already tells a story.

It does not simply say:

“I was here.”

It says:

“I walked all the way here.”

From the pink of Brachetto to the lilac of the hills: every bench tells the story of a place

Big Bench in Monferrato

There are many Big Benches in Monferrato, and some have naturally become part of our hiking routes.

At Alice Bel Colle, for example, the pink bench fits perfectly into a landscape shaped by Brachetto vineyards and wide panoramic views.

Between Lu and Cuccaro Monferrato, reaching the lilac Big Bench means walking through a hilly landscape that constantly changes as you move.

At Casasco, in the province of Alessandria, the red and blue giant bench offers yet another viewpoint over the surrounding territory.

And near Bosio, a Big Bench can become one stop within a much broader excursion, connecting the fun of a photograph with a landscape that already begins to look towards the Apennines.

And this variety is exactly what interests me.

I do not like to think of Big Benches as identical objects scattered across a map.

What interests me is everything that changes around them.

The colour may catch your attention, but the real protagonist should always remain the landscape.

Sitting down also means learning how to look

During a hike, it often happens that when we reach a panoramic viewpoint, someone simply says:

“How beautiful.”

And of course, that is perfectly understandable.

But a guide can add another layer.

A guide can explain why a vineyard grows on that particular slope, which village can be seen in the distance, why a church stands alone among the fields, where an old road once ran or why the colour of the soil suddenly changes.

At that point, the landscape is no longer simply beautiful.

It becomes readable.

This is why I also like to use a stop at a Big Bench as a privileged observation point.

We climb up, find a comfortable position — sometimes with less elegance than we would like to admit — laugh, inevitably take photographs and then finally look around.

That is the interesting moment.

Because the giant bench has already done its job:

it has made us stop.

Even the passport can become an invitation to slow travel

A system of passports and stamps has developed around the Big Benches and has contributed greatly to their popularity.

Each bench can encourage visitors to enter a bar, shop, local business or information point in the village to collect the official stamp.

And this is where the project reveals another important aspect of its original idea: creating tourism that can also bring benefits to small local communities.

The Big Bench Community Project is not only about spreading giant benches. It is also linked to the promotion of local communities, craftsmanship and businesses in the areas where the benches are located.

So the stamp may seem like a simple game.

In reality, it often brings visitors into a village they might otherwise have simply driven through.

And perhaps, after collecting the stamp, they stop for a coffee.

Then someone buys a bottle of wine.

Someone else discovers a local restaurant.

Another visitor notices a sign pointing towards a small church, a museum or an Infernot.

And once again, the Big Bench has done its job.

The risk? Looking at the bench and forgetting the landscape

Success inevitably brings some excesses.

When a place becomes highly photographed, the object itself can become more important than the landscape it was supposed to help us observe.

For me, it would be a real shame to reach a hill in Monferrato and see nothing more than a colourful bench.

Behind that structure there are millions of years of geological history, centuries of agriculture, grape varieties adapted to specific exposures, villages built along ridgelines, castles, Romanesque churches, chapels, white country roads and generations of families who have shaped this landscape.

The Big Bench should be the frame.

The picture is Monferrato.

Perhaps this is the best way to collect them

Not by counting how many we have reached.

But by remembering how we got there.

One at sunrise.

One after a long climb.

One surrounded by vineyards.

One during an evening hike.

One with Monviso suddenly appearing on the horizon.

One after crossing a village we had never even heard of before.

At that point, the photograph takes on a completely different meaning.

Because we have not simply found a Big Bench.

We have discovered another piece of Piedmont.

And that is how we prefer to experience them during our Monfreedom excursions: the giant bench as a playful destination, the walk as the real experience and Monferrato as the true protagonist.