Festa Patronale di San Giacomo — Banengo

Why it's special

It's a small hamlet feast where the whole frazione cooks. In 2024 it was billed as the Sagra del guanciotto d'asino, with donkey cheek (guanciotto d'asino) and donkey-meat agnolotti alongside hot, cold and vegetarian dishes. Around 700 garden gnomes line Banengo's streets, gardens and windowsills, so have a look round before dinner.

Programme · 2026

Patronal feast of the frazione with a large food stand, as announced in La Vita Casalese's summer calendar of the Montiglio feste.

• Everything happens at the Circolo in Banengo, about three kilometres west of Montiglio's centre.
• The food stand works in the evening and there is a bar and a funfair.
• The gnomes lead to their own little 'house' by the sports ground.

Banengo is one of the fourteen frazioni of Montiglio Monferrato, a scatter of houses on the hills west of the main village. Its parish church is dedicated to San Giacomo, St James the Apostle, whose feast falls on 25 July, and the frazione keeps its patronal festa on the first weekend of August.

The festa is run by the Circolo of Banengo and lasts three or four evenings. A food stand cooks local dishes, and each night has its own music, from a DJ set on the Friday to live duos and bands for dancing. Bocce matches are played by invitation, and there is a small funfair and a bar. The 2024 edition was themed as the Sagra del guanciotto d'asino, built around donkey cheek, with donkey-meat agnolotti on the menu too.

Banengo is also known as the 'paese degli gnomi'. Some 700 garden gnomes fill its streets, gardens and windowsills, ending at their own house by the sports ground. Later in the year the frazione holds an end-of-summer party and a bagna càuda weekend in November (Bagna càuda in the frazioni). It is one of a string of summer feste in Montiglio's frazioni, after the fritto misto at Carboneri and the acciuga al verde at Sant'Anna and just before the village's own San Lorenzo feast. See what else there is in Montiglio Monferrato.