The "housewife of Voghera" entered the Italian lexicon as the measure of common sense — and locals carry it with irony. Their town, capital of the Oltrepò Pavese, is a historic railway junction with a fourteenth-century Visconti castle and a Baroque cathedral commanding the porticoed square.
The real reason to stop lies around it: the Oltrepò is one of Italy's largest wine territories, land of pinot nero and bonarda, its hills starting just past the via Emilia. Varzi DOP salame and stew-filled ravioli complete a table that follows no fashions. Milan and Genoa are an hour away, in opposite directions.
Near Voghera
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
