Vignale in Danza
Dancers fill the high gardens of Palazzo Callori on summer nights — the international dance festival that's animated Vignale since 1978, from June through All Saints' Day.
Why it's special
One of Italy's oldest dance festivals, staged open-air in the terraced gardens of a Monferrato palazzo with the vineyards falling away below the stage.
Programme · 2026
Evening performances play in the Giardini Alti di Palazzo Callori; the "Aspettando Vignale in Danza" section takes shows to other towns in the province beforehand.
- Evening shows start around 21:30 in the Giardini Alti di Palazzo Callori, Via Bergamaschini; book on vignaleindanza.com or ptk-ticket.it, and bring a layer — the terraces cool off after dark.
Some festivals borrow a stage; this one borrows a palazzo. Each summer the terraced Giardini Alti di Palazzo Callori — the same tuff-cellared house that holds the Enoteca Regionale del Monferrato — turn into an open-air theatre, and dancers work under the night sky with the Barbera rows dropping away below the lights.
Vignale in Danza has run since 1978, which makes it one of the oldest dance festivals in the country. It's directed now by Michela Maggiolo, and it's grown past a single week: the palazzo evenings cluster in late June and early July, an international competition brings young companies through for a weekend, and then the season picks up again in late August and closes on 1 November. Recent editions have pulled crowds of several thousand up the hill.
The line-up mixes classical and contemporary — a "Sleeping Beauty" from Nuovo Balletto Classico one night, the athletic Kataklò company the next — and the "Aspettando Vignale in Danza" strand carries performances out to Alessandria and smaller towns across the province before the main run. Alongside the shows there are masterclasses with names like Liliana Cosí and Steve La Chance, plus artistic residencies.
Shows begin around 21:30 in the gardens on Via Bergamaschini. Tickets are on vignaleindanza.com and ptk-ticket.it, and there's a "biglietto sospeso" scheme if you want to cover a seat for someone else. Come early, walk the ridge while the light goes, and settle in for Vignale at its most alive.