Rorarte
An international painting competition and exhibition staged each autumn in the castle of Costigliole d'Asti — the 2026 edition, 'Rosso di Terra', hung through the castle rooms on September and October weekends.
Why it's special
It's a proper international painting prize hung inside the town's castle, free to walk into on the weekends — the castle that also houses the ICIF cooking school turned over to contemporary painting for a month, with red as the 2026 theme running through the work.
Programme · 2026
Seventh edition, themed "Rosso di Terra" ("Red of the Earth"), in the castle of Costigliole d'Asti — an international painting competition and exhibition using red as the thread through memory, belonging and identity.
- Free entry.
- Open Saturdays and Sundays only, 10:30–12:30 and 15:00–19:00.
- The official opening is 11 September at 17:30 and the awards ceremony on Saturday 10 October at 17:30.
- Details from Visit Costigliole (manifestazioni@costigliole.it, 0141 962201).
Barbera and the ICIF cooking school are what most people come to Costigliole d'Asti for, but for a month in the autumn its castle hangs paintings instead. Rorarte is an international painting competition and exhibition, in its seventh edition in 2026 under the title "Rosso di Terra" — red as the thread running through memory, belonging and identity, worked across the castle's rooms.
It's a weekends-only, free-entry affair: the show opens on 11 September and runs to 11 October, with the prize handed out on the second Saturday of October. Pair it with a walk up to the castle — the same building as the Oro Bianco white-wine weekend in spring — and the old centre below it.
Opening hours and the current year's theme are published by Visit Costigliole (see above). Dates above.