Essential travel guide to Barolo, a pretty wine town in Piedmont full of charm and quintessential Italian feel. Discover the best things to do in Barolo, where to eat, stay and why I recommend you to plan a visit.
The pretty town of Barolo is a small charming village in the hilly Langhe area of Piedmont and a place wine lovers probably already have one their radar: as its name suggest, the town of Barolo is where the famous barolo wine comes from!
Barolo is a small center surrounded by the beautiful and generous vines that gave to the world the red hues of nebbiolo and barolo wines, and ti is a delightful place to visit.
The town is historic, pretty, it has stunning views, and despite its small dimension, it has a lot of offer to its visitors, especially those into wine: here, you find several cellars, lovely restaurants and a fantastic wine museum that it is really worth seeing!
I really like Barolo.
I have recently spent several days in the area, visiting towns, vineyards and generally exploring the area, and I found Barolo to be one of the prettiest towns in the Langhe region – a hard competition since they are all so pretty!
I highly recommend you plan a visit and I hope this quick travel guide to Barolo and my candid photos of it will inspire to to go!
Why visit Barolo town TL;DR
Barolo is a pretty hilltop town, with a medieval feel to it and stunning views over the extensive vineyards of this area.
Barolo has a strong enogastronomic vocation and has very well made wine museum worth visiting.
Barolo, like the rest of this area, is still relatively undiscovered by overseas tourism so it doesn’t yet feel overrun and still maintains very much a local, relaxed feel.
I recommend to visit Barolo for a few hours on either side of a meal: a delicious way to spend a day in the area!
The best things to do in Barolo
Barolo is a pleasant town with some landmarks worth visiting. To enjoy the town, I recommend you:
Take a stroll around its historic center, and take it the pretty corners, flowery balconies, old shop signs that give the town its unique charm.
To do this, you do not need a tour nor a guide: just come over on a sunny day and allow yourself to wander with your nose in the air!
Barolo town center develops on a hill and is mostly car free, so the best (and only) way to visit the village is on foot.
Walk up the city bastions up to the Barolo main square: this a short (couple of minutes!) and scenic walk from where you catch beautiful views of the vineyards of this area.
At the top, you find yourself in Barolo main square, where you’ll find the wine museum and the main church of the town, in a peculiar shade of pink!
Visit the wine museum: this is a very well made, interactive museum with installation about the history of wine making and a fantastic room devoted to wine in movies, my absolute favorite (the museum is child friendly)
Good to know! The Barolo town wine museum is a lovely attractions also for non-drinkers and kids. It develops over several floors and it has interactive installations that you can move with levers and pedals, showcasing how vine was regarded in ancient civilizations and how it developed over the course of the centuries. One room is set up as a small cinema playing scenes of movies based around wine, wine harvest or wine aesthetic. You can get tickets to the museum on the spot.
Visit a historic cellar: in Barolo town you find the historic cellar Antiche Cantine Marchesi di Barolo, now open to the public for visits.
The tour of this facility is on the expensive side, yet it is interesting as the place has a a significant role in the birth of Barolo as a wine and the arrival of french wine making expertise to this area.
You can choose between different types of tasting (we did the one with 5 different varieties of their wines) and we booked directly from their website.
Go wine tasting: of course, one of the best things to do in Barolo town is to go wine tasting, which you can do both in the town itself and in the vineyards around it.
Places you may enjoy are the above mentioned Cantine Marchesi di Barolo (high end, in town).
Cantina Francesco Borgogno, Cantina Giacomo Borgongo e Fligli, and Cascina Adelaide, which is modern in look and good to visit to see how different the wine producing realities of this area can be.
Another lovely place to taste wine is La Vite Turchese wine shop which I also recommend as one of the nicest places to eat,
Where to eat in Barolo
In Barolo town, we had lovely meals in Osteria La Cantinella, which is a lovely restaurant with indoor and outdoor tables, a traditional yet refined menu and lovely staff Map: https://share.google/4N1GvVXPBEaPA9iM1
How to get to Barolo and Where to park in Barolo
Barolo is best reached by car. The drive to the town is along well kept roads that meander along beautiful hills and vineyards. While the drive doesn’t pose any difficultly, the many bends may pose some issues to visitors prone to motion sickness: this is not specific to the town and more a generic observation about the area, but the road to Barolo is no exception.
Once at the town, you have two well marked parking locations with pay and display machines. Bring cash. Please remember: when parking in Italy, blue lines are for paid parking and yellow lines are reserved space so make sure you stay well away from yellow ones!
What to see and do near Barolo
Barolo is in the Langhe area which is full of pretty towns, cellars and viewpoints, all worth a visit. Some places I particularly enjoyed are:
A visit to the pretty town of Neive, accompanied by a meal in Umano, one of my favorite restaurants in the area
A day at the stunning historic estate of Fontanafredda, which has a fantastic cellar, a Michelin star restaurant on site and also organizes fun truffle hunts with dogs
A quick visit to the colorful Cappella delle Brunate chapel in La Morra, made famous by social media and indeed rather pretty! When we went, there were building works so the whole experience wasn’t great but the position of the chapel is pretty and the selfie opp fun, so a quick drive there is worth it!
A visit to the pretty castle of Grinzane Cavour
A visit to Barbaresco town to climb its pretty tower and enjoy the extensive views
Visiting Barolo with kids
The town of Barolo itself doesn’t have a lot for kids as such however, it can easily enjoyed with children in tow and do like to include it in our Piedmont with kids adventures: a stroll around the car-free center looking for cats is an easy thing to do with little kids and the wine museum, as mentioned above, is surprisingly kid-friendly.
In terms of accessibility, the town is slightly uphill, has cobbles and some steps so it is not entirely stroller friendly but still manageable with a lightweight strollers. Aside from this, the town has a mellow vibe and it is very pretty, so you can definitely visit with kids and have a good time
The Barolo town kids playground is on the edge of the center, Map position >> 12060 Barolo, Province of Cuneo, Italy. I also noticed a sign for a 1-mile walk from the local school which suggest this can be a nice stroll for kids: it was so hot when we were there, we didn’t do it but this is the trail map!
In the area, older kids may like the selfie opportunity Brunate chapel in La Morra (a veru short drive from the town) while the whole family can have fun in Fontanafredda: their cellar visit included a scavenger hunt for kids and if your kids love dogs, their truffle hunt will also be a winner for them!
I hope this quick travel guide to the town of Barolo was helpful and it inspired you to visit! Safe travels!
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