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Asti in autumn — the festival season

From the first Sunday of September until Christmas, Asti's calendar runs from one festival to the next: the Palio, the Festival delle Sagre and the Douja d'Or in September, the medieval festival and the October fair, Bagna Cauda Day in late November, then the truffle fair and the Christmas market. When each one usually falls, how to do it, and where to eat and drink around it.

For most of the year Asti gets on with being a provincial capital. Then on the first Sunday of September the Palio is run in Piazza Alfieri, and from then until Christmas there's something on most weekends: the province's food festival and Asti's wine festival in September, a festival of the city's Middle Ages, the October fair, two weekends of bagna cauda, the white truffle fair and the Christmas market.

This page follows the season in order. It's meant to hold good from one year to the next, so it gives each event's usual timing. The event pages carry this year's dates and programmes, and when a date below comes from a particular year, it says so.

The season at a glance

The first Sunday of September: the Palio

The Palio di Asti is one of the oldest documented horse races in Italy. A chronicler records the people of Asti running a palio under the walls of their rival Alba in 1275, and the race was revived in its modern form in 1967. Twenty-one riders race bareback, each for one of the city's rioni and borghi or for a town of the province, round a 450-metre sand track laid in Piazza Alfieri. Three heats of seven horses decide the nine that run the final. The winner takes the palio itself, a crimson velvet drape painted each year by a different artist. Further down the order the prizes are a purse of silver coins, silver spurs, a live rooster and a cockade, and the last horse home gets an anchovy and a salad.

The day has a set rhythm, and the timetable was almost identical in 2024 and 2026. At 10:00 each horse and rider is blessed in their parish church. At 11:00 the flag-wavers perform in Piazza San Secondo. In the early afternoon about 1,200 people in medieval costume walk in procession from Piazza Cattedrale along Corso Alfieri and through Piazza San Secondo to Piazza Alfieri. The heats start at 16:00 and the final is run at about 18:00.

Watching the procession from the street is free. Seats in the grandstands round the square are sold by the Comune's Palio ticket office at the Teatro Alfieri (in 2026 from €30 to €150), and the cheapest way in is the parterre in the middle of the track, which cost €5 that year, with under-sixes free. In the days before the race the districts hold their own big dinners, and on the day the whole centre is packed, so book any table you want well ahead. Osteria del Palio, east of the square, has a big terrace, generous traditional cooking at low prices and staff used to large groups, though service slows when it's full. Tacabanda, right by the Teatro Alfieri where the tickets are sold, does its tagliolini with truffle in vaulted brick rooms.

If you miss the race, you can still see what it's about. The Museo del Palio in Palazzo Mazzola, near the cathedral, shows old drapes, posters and film of the race and the procession, and it's free. Until May 2027 it also has an exhibition of drawings by Antonio Guarene, who painted the drape in 2011 and 2018. The Collegiata di San Secondo keeps a chapel of historic banners, and the Palio year really begins in May, at the Festa di San Secondo.

The second weekend of September: the Festival delle Sagre

A week after the Palio, the Festival delle Sagre brings the village food festivals of the whole province into town. Giovanni Borello, the Chamber of Commerce president who had founded the Douja d'Or, started it in 1974. Around thirty Pro Loco (29 in 2026), each a team of village volunteers, cook the dishes they serve at their own sagra in a mock village built on Piazza Campo del Palio, complete with its own church, town hall and post office. You walk from stand to stand picking a plate at each. The food village opens on Saturday evening and runs all day Sunday (in 2026, 18:30 to midnight and then 11:30 to 22:00). In 2026 one Pro Loco, Portacomaro Stazione, served a certified gluten-free menu.

Sunday morning belongs to the parade, which set off at 9:30 in 2026. More than 3,000 people in old work clothes walk from Corso Matteotti through Piazza San Secondo and Piazza Alfieri to the Campo del Palio, each village staging a scene from country life a century ago: the grain harvest, working hemp, emigration to America, women voting for the first time. Grandstand seats in Piazza Alfieri cost €5 in 2026. Otherwise, get to the route early for a good view.

The wine comes from the Cantina delle Sagre, run by the Barbera d'Asti consorzio, with Barbera d'Asti, Moscato d'Asti and Ruchè among the bottles. In 2026 you could buy the official glass online in advance and skip the queue. Leave the car outside the centre. In 2026 shuttle buses ran on both days from the car parks at Piazza Cosma Manera and the Asti Lido pool, and there were special trains from Turin.

Mid-September: the Douja d'Or

The Douja d'Or is Asti's wine festival, held every September since 1967. A douja is the squat terracotta jug Piedmont used to pour wine from, and Gianduja, the region's carnival mask, drinks out of one. For ten days the festival spreads through the old centre. Piazza San Secondo is the hub, and tastings, talks and masterclasses fill the halls and courtyards of the palazzi. In 2026 that meant Palazzo Alfieri, Palazzo Ottolenghi and the Teatro Alfieri, with a 'Douja Off' programme at other venues around town. The consorzi pour alongside individual producers, so you can taste Barbera, Moscato and the region's other wines with the people who make them.

Masterclasses have limited places, so book on doujador.it. The two weekends are the busiest days (in 2026 the organisers counted about 140,000 visits across them), and the Festival delle Sagre usually lands on the first one. If you want room to talk to the producers, come on a weekday.

Between pours, Asti's enoteche are a calmer place to keep tasting. Enoteca La Buta, just off Piazza San Secondo, has a long list of Piedmontese wines by the glass with salumi, cheese and crostoni. Inside the central food market, Stefano at AlzaCalici pours Ruchè, Grignolino and Barbera from small producers and explains them without fuss. Enoteca Assetati is upstairs above its own bottle shop, easy to miss, with a wide list by the glass and taglieri built to match. For lunch, Lo Stregatto, right by the piazza, does salads, soups and sandwiches with local wines by the glass on its outdoor deck, though service can be slow. Il Cicchetto has a good-value set lunch and its own vermouth.

To see where the wine comes from, book a cellar on the edge of town. At Portacomaro Stazione, north of Asti, Vini Caldera makes three Ruchè, keeps weekend hours too, and offers a one-hour tasting of four wines from €20. On the Viatosto hill, La Torre di Viatosto pours a Nebbiolo Metodo Classico at its €30 tasting, a few hundred metres from the terrace of I Bugianen. Both are by booking only.

Late September: the Festival del Medioevo Astese

Run by the Comune since 2024, the Festival del Medioevo Astese tells the story of medieval Asti, whose merchants and money-lenders, the 'Lombardi', did business all over Europe. It runs over four or five days in late September. Historians give lectures and conferences, and there are exhibitions, organ and choral concerts and guided walks. The theme changes every year. In 2026 it was St Francis and the economics of the Franciscans.

Most of it takes place in the Complesso di San Pietro, whose brick Rotonda was built in the early 1100s in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre. The complex is closed to ordinary visits for restoration, but the festival has held its talks in the Cappella Valperga and an exhibition in the baptistery. The Collegiata and the Museo Diocesano San Giovanni host events too. Everything has been free while seats last. The lectures are in Italian, so if you don't speak it, go for the 'Asti Medievale' walks, which leave from the tourist office in Piazza Alfieri and are booked on visitlmr.it, and for the exhibitions, which stay open at weekends into October. After an evening at San Pietro, Campanarò is a couple of minutes' walk away, with truffle pasta and a long wine list the staff love to steer you through.

October: the town fair, the antiques market and the first truffles

On the second Sunday of October comes the Fiera d'Autunno, one of the city's three seasonal fairs. It's a proper town fair rather than a tourist event: about 450 stalls of food and general goods in Piazza Alfieri and the streets round it. On the fourth Sunday of the month (and of every month) the antiques market sets out about 150 stalls in front of the Portici Anfossi in the same square. Come in the morning for the best choice. On the second Saturday, BioAgroArte brings organic food and crafts to Piazza Statuto, a minute from Piazza San Secondo. Before or after, have a cappuccino under the arcades at Gran Caffè Portici Rossi, though prices at the tables can run high.

October is also the last month to climb the Torre Troyana, which closes from November to March, and the start of the white truffle season. In 2026 nine truffle fairs in the province joined a circuit called Terre del Bianco, from Montiglio Monferrato's fair in early October to Asti's own in December. The truffle fairs guide has them in date order. In town, truffle turns up on the menus: tagliolini at Tacabanda, truffle pasta at Campanarò, white truffle pasta at Angolo del Beato, and in past seasons a white truffle menu at lunch at Il Cavolo a Merenda. If you'd like to see a dog at work, the Pavese family at Luigi Pavese e Figli, a small winery at Montemarzo south-east of the city, has taken visitors into its own truffle ground from mid-September to the end of December. Phone first, because their website was down when we checked in October 2026.

Late November: Bagna Cauda Day

Bagna cauda is anchovies and garlic melted slowly in olive oil and kept warm at the table while you dip vegetables in it, and it's the dish Piedmont argues about most. Bagna Cauda Day was started in 2013 by the Astigiani, a cultural association in Asti. Over two weekends in late November, Friday to Sunday, well over a hundred restaurants, wine cellars, farm inns and Pro Loco halls serve it at the same time, at a fixed price (the standard menu was €30 at the 2026 venues). There's no central site. You pick a venue from the list on bagnacaudaday.it and book with it directly, and early. Choose Come Dio comanda for the traditional version, Eretica if you want the garlic softened, or Atea for none at all. Everyone gets the year's bib, the Bavagliolone, drawn by a different artist each time.

On the 2026 list, the places in Asti that are also on this site were:

  • Il Cicchetto, the friendly central restaurant with its own vermouth
  • Il Cavolo a Merenda, the lively fresh-pasta place with the open kitchen
  • La Piola di Garibaldi, the traditional piola on a busy corner, which gets slow when it's full
  • Diavolo Rosso, the bar in the former Baroque church of San Michele, if you fancy your bagna cauda under a church ceiling
  • Il Cavallo Scosso, on the northern edge of town, taking part for the first time. It's a tasting-menu restaurant whose recent meals have divided visitors.
  • Cà d'Pinot, a farm inn on the road towards Alessandria, busy with locals for its one fixed menu with wine included

Check this year's list before you book, as it changes. Out on the same Alessandria road, Tenuta Il Capitolo is where bagna cauda is the speciality, served in an eclectic restored country house where Silvia and Paolo look after you like house guests. Ring them about dates. For the village Pro Loco dinners around Asti, see Bagna cauda in Monferrato, and if you miss November, the organisers run a smaller round, the Bagna della Merla, at the end of January.

From mid-November: the Christmas market

Il Magico Paese di Natale is a Christmas programme Asti shares with Govone, which has the royal castle and Santa's house, and San Damiano d'Asti, which has a living nativity in its old cellars. Asti has the market. Since 2023 all its wooden chalets, around 130 of them, have stood together in Piazza Alfieri, selling crafts, local food and street food. It opens on weekends from mid-November and on most days in December until the weekend before Christmas, from 10:00 to 20:00, and it's free. It's shut on the weekdays in between, so check the calendar on the event page. Weekends are the busiest. A free shuttle runs on Saturdays and Sundays from the free car park in Piazza Cosma Manera. The Christmas markets guide covers the village markets and presepi around it.

When the cold sets in, Caffetteria Mazzetti, beside Palazzo Mazzetti, is a cheerful place for a glass of Barbera d'Asti on a foggy evening, and Lo Stregatto does a rich hot chocolate with baci di dama.

The white truffle fair

The Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo is the weekend when the trifulau, the truffle hunters, bring their finds into town. It's usually held in mid-November, but in 2026 it moved to 12–13 December, as the last fair of the Terre del Bianco circuit, and its detailed programme wasn't out by mid-October. What makes it worth the trip is the truffle market. Truffles are sold on the stalls of the hunters' own association, the Associazione Trifulau Astigiani e Monferrini, whose experts check each one before it goes on sale. On the Sunday the stalls of a food and wine market fill the old centre from dawn to dusk, and in the afternoon the association judges the best single truffle and the best truffle dish. In 2025 a market from Asti's twin towns, Valence and Biberach, set up under the Portici Anfossi.

That year the fair sat in a heated tent in Piazza Alfieri next to the Christmas market, as the centrepiece of 'I Gioielli del Territorio', and the tent stayed open every weekend until just before Christmas, serving tagliolini, agnolotti and carne cruda with truffle, Asti wines, and panettone with zabaione. See the event page for how it's laid out this year. Plan the day like this: the truffle market in the morning, lunch in one of the trattorie of the centre, and the Christmas stalls as it gets dark. For lunch, Osteria della Piazza is calm and old-fashioned, with porcini pasta. Vicolo Battisti does truffle dishes alongside its pizza and dry-aged steaks and fits groups in easily.

Christmas sweets and the New Year's concert

Before you leave, stock up. Davide Barbero, Asti's long-established torrone and chocolate maker, sells soft nougat, hazelnut chocolates and a Christmas panettone that one American family has shipped home every year, from an old-fashioned shop where the tastings are generous. Giordanino on Corso Alfieri makes cakes and biscuits by hand, and the two women who run it are good at helping you choose gifts. For bottles, Enoteca La Cantina has a huge range of local and Italian wines and staff who'll find something for any budget.

The season ends on 1 January at 17:00, when the Orchestra Sinfonica di Asti plays its New Year's concert of Strauss waltzes and polkas at the Teatro Alfieri, with gags between the players, the conductor and the audience. The theatre fills up, so buy tickets ahead at the box office or online.

For a day in Asti when nothing special is on, see One day in Asti.