Experience the best of Asti

Asti lies on a plain among the vine-covered hills of Piedmont's Monferrato district, south-east of Turin. It grew as a medieval commune of towers and merchant-bankers, and the cathedral, a Gothic building of red brick, and a number of medieval tower-houses survive in the old centre. Piazza Alfieri, a long triangular square named after the poet Vittorio Alfieri, who was born in the town, is its centre.

Each September the Palio di Asti, a bareback horse race run on a track of packed earth around the square, draws the town's districts into rivalry, and the Douja d'Or wine festival runs in the same month. The hills around Asti are part of a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of vineyards, and Alba and the Langhe, home of Barolo and Barbaresco, lie to the south.

Asti Spumante, sweet and sparkling, and the lightly fizzy Moscato d'Asti are made from Moscato grapes, and Barbera d'Asti is a lively red. Piedmontese dishes include agnolotti, bagna cauda, a hot dip of garlic and anchovies for raw vegetables, and bollito misto, while white truffles are hunted in the hills from autumn.