Palio di Asti

Why it's special

The chronicler Guglielmo Ventura records the people of Asti running a palio under the walls of their rival Alba in 1275, which makes this one of the oldest documented horse races in Italy. It's still run without saddles, on a 450-metre sand track laid in Piazza Alfieri, in three heats of seven horses and a final of nine. The prize is the palio itself, a crimson velvet drape painted each year by a different artist, and the last horse home gets an anchovy and a salad.

Programme · 2026

21 riders for the districts (rioni and borghi) of Asti and the towns taking part. The 2026 palio drape was painted by Marco Aru.

• Watching the procession from the streets is free.
• Seats on the grandstands round Piazza Alfieri are sold by the Comune's Palio ticket office at the Teatro Alfieri (in 2026 from €30 for the outer stands to €150 in the Alfieri Argano stand), and the cheapest way in is the parterre in the middle of the track, €5 in 2026 and free for children up to 6.
• The day starts at 10:00 with the blessing of each horse and rider in the parish churches.
• The procession of 1,200 people sets off from Piazza Cattedrale in the early afternoon, the heats start at 16:00 and the final is run at about 18:00.
• Ticket office: +39 0141 399057, biglietteriapalio@comune.asti.it.

The first written record of the Palio di Asti comes from the chronicler Guglielmo Ventura, who describes the people of Asti running their palio under the walls of Alba in 1275, an act of defiance against a rival city whose vineyards they had just damaged. The race was run in honour of San Secondo, the city's patron saint, and in its modern form it was revived in 1967. Until 2017 it was held on the third Sunday of September; since 2018 it has been the first Sunday, opening the city's September season ahead of the Festival delle Sagre and the Douja d'Or.

Twenty-one riders take part, each for one of the city's rioni and borghi or for a town of the province. In the days before the race the districts hold big dinners, perform rituals to ward off bad luck and play pranks on their rivals. On the morning of the race each horse and rider is blessed in its parish church, and in the afternoon a procession of about 1,200 people in medieval costume, each group recreating a different historical theme, walks from Piazza Cattedrale through the centre to Piazza Alfieri. The race is run bareback, three laps of a 450-metre sand track, starting when the mossiere drops the canapo, the thick rope across the start line. Three heats of seven horses decide the nine that run the final.

The prize is the palio, a long crimson drape of velvet hanging from a painted banner with the arms of Asti and the figure of San Secondo. Each year it's painted by a different artist; past drapes and posters are on show for free at the Museo del Palio in Palazzo Mazzola. See what else is on in Asti.