A village on the northern side of the Ligurian Appennines, set on the right bank of the Giusvalletta, a tributary of the Valla. The site of a stately castle since the tenth century, it was a fief of the Del Carretto (1142) and then the marquises of Ponzone and Monferrato until it became part of the kingdom of Sardinia in 1735. The castle, now in ruins, dates from the Middle Ages. The church of San Matteo houses a holy-water stoup from the thirteenth century. The landscape is a traditional mix of farmland and forest, with a particularly quiet and suggestive atmosphere.