Asti

The Asti of sparkling-wine fame is a bustling city more concerned with everyday business than with entertaining visitors, but there are many treasures to be found in the history-drenched Old Town -- medieval towers (120 of them still stand), Renaissance palaces, and broad piazze provide the perfect setting in which to sample the town's famous product.

Getting There

By Train -- One to four trains an hour link Asti with Turin (30-60 min.). There are 14 trains daily between Asti and Alba, some of which require that you change trains at Nizza Monferrato or occasionally at Castagnole delle Lanze (35 min.-1 hr.).

By Bus -- From Turin, Arfea (tel. 0144-322-023 or 0131-445-433; www.arfea.com) runs two buses per day, one morning and one midafternoon, on the hour-long ride to Asti. Giachino (tel. 0141-937-510; www.giachino.it) makes the hour-long trip to and from Alba, about once per hour.

By Car -- Asti, 60km (37 miles) east of Turin, can be reached from Turin in less than an hour via Autostrada 21.

Visitor Information

The APT tourist office is near the train station at Piazza Alfieri 29 (tel. 0141-530-357; fax 0141-538-300; www.terredasti.it). May to September hours are Monday to Saturday 9am to 6:30pm and Sunday 10am to 1pm; October to April hours are Monday to Saturday 9am to 1pm and 2:30 to 6:30pm and Sunday 10am to 1pm. Among the office's offerings is a Carta del Vini, an annotated map that will point you to surrounding vineyards that provide wine tastings.

Festivals & Markets

In late June and early July, Asti stages Astiteatro (tel. 0141-399-111 or 0141-399-032), a theater festival with performances that incorporate dance as well as music. In 2003, Astiteatro celebrated its 25th anniversary. September, though, is the town's busy cultural month, with townsfolk and horses alike donning medieval garb for its famous Palio on the third Sunday. Local wine producers converge on the town the 2 weeks before the Palio for the Douja d'Or (www.doujador.it), an exhibition of local vintages accompanied by tastings; this is an excellent way to sample the products of the many wineries in the hills surrounding Asti and nearby Alba. On the second Sunday of September, surrounding villages mount feasts (almost always accompanied by a communal meal) known collectively as the Pjasan.

Agricultural center that it is, Asti has two food markets. The larger is held Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7:30am to 1pm in the Campo del Palio, with stalls selling every foodstuff imaginable -- seeds, herbs, flowers, farm implements, and no end of other merchandise spilling over to two adjoining piazzas, the Piazza della Liberta and Piazza Alfieri. Meanwhile, Asti's covered food market, the Mercato Coperto, is also located in this vicinity, on Piazza della Liberta, and is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 8am to 1pm and 3:30 to 7:30pm, Thursday from 8:30am to 1pm, and Saturday from 8am to 7:30pm. There's also a small antiques fair on the fourth Sunday of every month except August.

Exploring the Town

If you take the train to Asti, you will step right into the heart of the action -- the town's lively clothing-and-food markets occupy three adjoining piazzas just to the north of the station (Campo del Palio, Piazza Liberta, and Piazza Alfieri). If you're driving into Asti, you're most likely to find parking in one of the lots in this area as well.

Walk through the piazzas to Corso Alfieri; the town's Renaissance palaces are located on or just off this major thoroughfare, usually closed to traffic. This street and Asti's grandest piazza are named for the town's most famous native son, the 18th-century poet Vittorio Alfieri. His home, on the Corso at 375, houses a small, memento-filled museum.

Second to none in Asti is San Secondo, the town's patron saint. He was imprisoned at the western end of Corso Alfieri in the Torre Rossa -- much of which dates to the 1st century (probably part of a Roman gate) with two levels tacked on in the 11th century -- then beheaded on the spot just south of Corso Alfieri where the church erected in his honor, the Collegiata di San Secondo (tel. 0141-530-066), now stands. Not only does this Romanesque-Gothic structure have the honor of housing the saint's remains in its eerie crypt, but it is also the permanent home of the coveted Palio Astigiano, the banner awarded to the horseman who wins the town's annual Palio (Secondo is the patron saint of this event). The church is open daily from 10:45am to noon and 3:30 to 5:30pm (Sun morning for Mass only).

Asti's "other" church is its 14th-century, redbrick Cattedrale (tel. 0141-592-924), which you can reach by walking through Piazza Cairoli, at the western end of Corso Alfieri, into the nearby Piazza Cattedrale. Every inch of this brick church's cavernous interior is festooned with frescoes by late-18th-century artists, including Gandolfino d'Asti; trompe l'oeil vines climb many of the columns. The cathedral is open daily from 8:30am to noon and 3 to 5:30pm.

The most notable feature of the church of San Pietro in Consavia (tel. 0141-353-072), at the eastern end of Corso Alfieri, is its round, 10th-century baptistery; the 15th-century interior and adjoining cloisters house a one-room paleontology collection (open Tues-Sun 10am-12:30pm and 3-7pm).