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The Langhe is a region of steep, vine-covered hills in southern Piedmont, the home of Barolo and Barbaresco and, around Santo Stefano Belbo, of Moscato d'Asti. Since 2014 its vineyard landscape has been protected by UNESCO. This is slow country in the literal sense: the Slow Food movement began in this corner of Piedmont, in nearby Bra, and the rhythm of the year still follows the vine and the table. Santo Stefano Belbo was the birthplace of the writer Cesare Pavese, who returned to these hills again and again in his work. The land rolls in long lines of vines broken by patches of forest, and on a clear day the Alps stand along the horizon. Most people come for the food and the wine and stay for the quiet.

Plinius lists the house anonymously as a number, but its design story is clear enough: the garden. It was planted by Fernando Martos, the Madrid landscape designer known for dry, naturalistic gardens that look as though they have always been there, built from Mediterranean natives, grasses and perennials rather than lawn and irrigation. Here that approach wraps a modern hilltop house and runs down to an infinity pool set below the line of the garden, so the water sits among the planting with the vineyards beyond and no visible edge between them. Inside are four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and its own view of the vines. The owners chose the Langhe for its table as much as its landscape, and the house leans into that, with a meal-and-wine service that brings a multi-course Piemontese dinner and local bottles to the terrace. The building's architect is not named; the lasting impression is the garden and the hill it sits on.