In the 1970s many people abandoned the Barbaresco area to go and look for work in the factories of neighbouring industrial towns and cities, such as Alba, Bra, Asti and Turin. Let Renato Cigliuti take up the story: “In those days old-timers were dismayed by the way the countryside was being abandoned. Only the infirm, the mad and elderly are staying on, they used to say. And you couldn’t say they were wrong exactly when, on Saturdays, you saw youngsters of my generation speeding round the village in their fancy cars and fashionable clothes, without a care in the world. I stayed on because the land gives me a sense of security. To separate myself from it would be like separating myself from my family. I feel it’s a part of me, with the seasons that change its face and its colours, the snow that buries it, then the sun that uncovers and allows it to re-emerge in all its beauty … I can feel it breathing”.