.:Amis d'la Curma:.

The Colma village (municipality of Rosignano Monferrato, district of Alessandria), appears as a tiny Christmas crib, located on the southern side of the Colma hill. At the top of this hill there is the St. Bartholomew's castle.

The life of its inhabitants is closed in by the beauty of the surrounding landscape.

the Colma Village

Since the last century we can affirm that the Colma practically did not change. Yet, still today the same houses pass one after the other on the unique street which crosses the village and these houses, leaned one to the other, hide to the passers-by the courtyards where the ancient peasants’ life took place.

"An s'la Curma" (from the Colma hill top)

In the centre of the village is situated “Villa Maria”, the residence where the pointillist painter Angelo Morbelli periodically lived and worked for all his life. Still today “Villa Maria” belongs to the heirs of the painter.

The houses were built in tuff (“canton”) and bricks, and are almost all provided with basements dug into the tuff and equipped with “infernot”, the place where the best bottles of wine were kept destined to age the wine, as a memento of special events (i.e. birth of children).

View from Berroni

The street which descends with short curves towards the Chapel, was at the end of the 60’s, paved with white tuff powder: during the big storms the street, traced by the wheels of the barrows, transformed itself into deep ruts of water, and the white powder became slippery mud.

Villa Maria from the main street