Acqui Terme Romana
For one June weekend Acqui Terme leans into its Roman name — Aquae Statiellae — with a costumed procession, reenactors, family workshops and a dinner of dishes that reach back two thousand years.
Why it's special
Acqui was a Roman spa town, and the aqueduct arches still stride across the Bormida valley. This weekend puts that history back on the street with over fifty reenactors from across Italy, plus local actors trained to tell the town's own story.
Programme · 2026
Three days of reenactment, guided tours and Roman-themed food across the old town and the Castello dei Paleologi.
- The Friday-night Roman dinner is served across town restaurants and books up — reserve ahead.
- The Saturday Bacchanalia keeps the centre busy well after dark; go early with kids for the workshops and games at the Castello dei Paleologi.
Acqui was Aquae Statiellae, a Roman spa town, and you don't have to imagine it: the aqueduct arches still march across the Bormida valley on the edge of town. For one weekend in early June the rest of the town catches up with them. A costumed procession sets off through the streets, more than fifty reenactors turn the Castello dei Paleologi into a Roman camp of workshops and games, and local actors — trained by Rete Teatri — play out episodes of the town's own past.
The Friday is the one to build a plan around. After the opening ceremony at La Bollente, where the sulphurous spring still surges up at 75°C in the middle of the piazza, restaurants across the centre serve a "Cena dell'Antica Roma" — a menu that runs from genuinely ancient dishes to modern Piedmontese cooking, two thousand years of flavour on one table. Book it; the good tables go fast.
Saturday night is the Bacchanalia, the town's Roman "notte bianca", and Sunday closes with Ludi Scaenici — theatre with music as the light drops. It's free to wander, easy with children, and a good excuse to walk out to the Roman aqueduct while the reenactors are still in costume. See Acqui Terme for what else is open that weekend.