The Tunnel and the New Road

For quite some time the citizes of Diano had been thinking about building a new road to replace the steep and tortuous medieval one. There were two proposals, one with passage to the east and the other to the west. Mayor Alessandro Mermet had the extraordinary intuition of the Tunnel. In 1850, the manual construction on the new road and tunnel began and was completed in 1863. The day of the inauguration was a grandiose celebration.

The road, a lot less steep tortuous, finally connected Alba with Bossolasco in an optimal way, and then continued towards Liguria. Due to some accidents during the works and the concomitance of other stories, the place was long considered insidious due to the presence of "Masche" (Piedmontese witches) and evil spirits. Stories, today, that have become legends.