Around the year 934 AD, Emperor Ottone I decided to reward his valiant soldier Aleramo for the courage demonstrated during the siege of the city of Brescia, granting him as much land as he could cross by horse in three days in this mountainous terrain of Piedmont.
Aleramo set out and rode day and night for three days, on three fast mounts, covering all the land that ran from the river Po, to the Tanaro, the Orba, almost as far as the Mediterranean in Liguria, giving rise to the “Monferrato” region.
Legend recounts that Aleramo, wanting to shoe his horse before beginning his great ride and not finding the right tools, used a brick (mattone) known in Piedmontese as a “mun”, and thus managed to have his horse shoed (ferrato, “frrha” in dialect).
This led to the local name “Munfrrha”: Monferrato.
The Alto Monferrato stretches from the southern border with Liguria to the plains of Alessandria, including the Belbo, Bormida, Erro and Orba valleys.