The Salto hill

What Pavese calls Salto in The Moon And The Bonfires is the hill opposite Gaminella, skirting the road to Canelli. It is rather different from Gaminella: more rugged, arid, less lush.

“…the Salto hill, beyond the Belbo, with its ridges and large meadows that disappeared on the tops. And below, this one, too, was all bare vineyards, cut by thickets, and the tree stains, the paths, the scattered farms were there as I used to see them day after day, year after year, sitting on the beam behind the lodge or on the bridge parapet”.

At its foot lies the workshop house of Nuto, a great friend of Cesare Pavese and a key character of the novel.