Which location to stay in Piedmont

I would stay in Casale Monferrato. It is a beautiful town in of itself and is known for its great restaurants. I don't know what you mean by not "too big" as about 30k people live there. IMHO, if you only have 3 nights, I would choose either the Piemonte region or a lake area and not try to squeeze in both.

Absolutely one or the other.
Alba is nice and pretty popular. I was very attracted to little Neive one village over.

Last year a friend and I stayed at Agriturismo Tre Stelle in Barbaresco. It is a working vineyard and farm with fantastic views of the countryside, great hosts and a tasty breakfast. Since it is also a working winery, Michele will most likely have a tasting and give you a tour. It is convenient to visiting the wine towns in the area and there are some fantastic restaurants. Alba and Asti are short drives. Nearby Ristorante Rabaya and Osteria tasTé were very good. A bit further away in Guarene is Io e Luna, one of the best restaurants at which I’ve ever dined. Barbaresco and Brunello both have extensive enotecas where you can sample the wines. In Barbaresco visit Koki wine bar in case you want a light meal or snack. If you want to sample a wonderful white wine from the Langhe region, try a cold bottle of Arneis. Plan on a visit to Torino, a great, understated city!

You can visit Turin from Alba taking a direct train, no need to risk a ztl fine.

I agree with picking one location. I cannot speak to the Como/Garda option but we stayed in Alba in October and had a very enjoyable time. We spent one day visiting Barbaresco and Neive. Neive has a great wine commune tasting room that represents a few dozen growers in the area. Another day was spent visiting the wine towns to the south - Serralunga d'Alba, Barolo, La Morra and Grinzane Cavour. They are all very close and an easy drive.

In Alba we stayed at Your Home, Your Stories via AirBnB. Fantastic hosts with great recommendations for restaurants and wineries.

We certainly enjoyed our 6 nights in Alba in November last year (with a car but my husband did take the train into Torino for the opera) --- we enjoyed our apartment there with parking inside the gated garden, so if you decide on Alba, let me know. You can get to a lot of places from Alba. The historic center is small and walkable, and there's a farmers market and, when we were there, a truffle market.

We also spent 3 nights in La Morra which was a very sweet little town, but maybe a bit TOO little. Neive seemed too small for a base too, when we visited it. I guess we want more places to eat and drink coffee and things to see in the town itself when we make some town our base.

If you like white wines at all, or even if you think you don't, do try the interesting white wines made from what they call indigenous grapes: Nascetta, Timorasso, Arneis (my favorite), and Erbaluce.

We spent 7 more nights in Piemonte (Saluzzo and Torino) and didn't come anything like close to seeing all the things we wanted to see, so yes, absolutely spend all of your three nights there.

We spent a week in Alba and visited the surrounding wine villages, all charming. None were too long of a drive from Alba either, easier than Tuscany and less crowded too. If you only have three nights, two days, in tne Piemonte stay put and concentrate on the area.
You could stop on Lake Maggiore coming or going from the Piemonte but Lake Como and Lake Garda are father away. Where else are you planning to go in Italy? If heading to Venice, you could add one of the other lakes enroute there.

With only three nights, no, you don’t have time for a night or visit to Como or Garda. They are way too far away for such a short stay.

I'm not the original poster, but I'm interested in this too. We're looking to spend a few days in this area. Is Alba a better choice than Torino? We will stop here between Tuscany and Switzlerland, and are planning to stay to the west (did the centre --- Lake Como and Lugano--last year). We want to go to Aosta also. Should we make that a day trip from a base, or stop on our way into Switzerland?

Has anyone ever been to Bruil-Cervinia? Wondering if it's worth going to in late May-early June.

Is Alba a better choice than Torino?

Alba Is in the middle of the UNESCO wine country and has 30,000 inhabitants. Turin is a former capital where more than 900,000 live. Better depends on what you are interested in.

If you are going from Tuscany the Switzerland by car, I'm afraid it's time to look at a map and to start planning on a mapping site like ViaMichelin.com

We stayed at Villa Beccaris in Monforte d’Alba and loved it! The town is fairly small, but plenty of food options. We also arranged for a day long tour with Anna and Claudio https://www.italianna.com/ and learned a lot about wine and the area. Love Piedmont!!

As for Como or Garda, I wouldn’t include those with this itinerary. Lake Maggiore is much closer, but honestly you will have plenty to do in wine country.

Torino is a large busy city with many world-class sites and museums, but you'll have an easier time getting in and out of Alba or some other town.

We stayed 4 nights in Alba at Albacentro Apartments, near free parking. Easy in and out of the town which has great restaurants (Piazza Duomo is considered one of the world's best). We visited Neive, Barolo, LaMorra, Bra. All very easy to drive to and find free parking in. We drove there after Turin and before Genoa. Definitely do one or the other.