On the other side of the hills of Turin, beyond the famous Superga monument overlooking the city, lie fields of corn, forests, and a scattering of vineyards. In these Collina Torinese, or Turin Hills, smaller quantities of wine are produced than in Piemonte’s more famous wine zones. However, what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality and that perfect Italian descriptor, tipicità: typicity. Lying at the heart of this forest and farmland is Chieri, a city of many beautiful churches, a fine shopping street, and the eponym of this area’s wine: Freisa di Chieri.

Near the foot of the Alps, but still remarkably in sight of Turin's hilltop monument La Superga if the day is clear, is a small town with a big castle: Agliè.

What draws visitors to Caluso, a small town of 8,000 inhabitants, is its unique, fresh, white wine that comes from the native Erbaluce grape (or, by other accounts, a hybrid of a Ligurian variety and southern Greco grape).

Piedmontese on the map but Valdostano in all intentions: Carema, the first Canavese town to the north and 63 km (39 mi) from Turin, presented a referendum in 2007 asking for annexation from the Valley d'Aosta. Annexation denied, the great majority of Carema inhabitants returned, in a disappointed but good-natured peace, to their lives in their small, ancient town.