The villages of lower Monferrato — Cella Monte, Rosignano Monferrato, Ozzano, Sala Monferrato, Frassinello — sit on a soft sandstone called Pietra da Cantoni. Beneath the houses, generations of villagers chiselled out small barrel-vaulted chambers called infernot, used to store the wines they kept for themselves rather than for sale. Each is unique: some have niches for bottles, some inscribed with the maker's initials and the year, some accessed through a trapdoor and an iron ladder.
The ecomuseo at Cella Monte runs guided tours of the village's infernot — without that, most of them stay invisible behind closed doors. It is one of the more curious corners of Italian wine country, a reminder that this is a landscape carved as much by patience and quiet pride as by farming.