What is Alba known for?

The Tuber magnatum pico of the Langhe, traded each autumn through the Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco, the oldest white truffle fair in Italy. Alba is the commercial centre of the two great Nebbiolo DOCG appellations, with roughly 290 wineries within commuting distance. Headquarters of the Ferrero confectionery group, founded by Pietro Ferrero in 1946, the company that invented Nutella in the same town.

Alba is a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont region of Italy, about 73 kilometers from Torino.

Piedmont · Cuneo

Alba

The Langhe capitalon the Tanaro, world reference for white truffle and Nebbiolo, headquarters of Ferrero.

73 km / 45 mi

Nearest hub (Torino)

31,210

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Alba sitson the right bank of the Tanaro, the regional capital of the Langhe and the centre of one of Italy's most concentrated wine and food economies. The Roman city of Alba Pompeia stood on the same site, and the Piazza Risorgimento, locally called Piazza Duomo, is laid out on the line of the old Roman forum. The Duomo di San Lorenzo dates to the twelfth century and carries a late Gothic red-brick façade and a vaulted nave. In the medieval centuries the town was known as the city of a hundred towers; a few dozen survive, the tallest along Via Cavour. The Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco runs across October and November, the oldest white truffle fair in the country. The Palio degli Asini on the first Sunday of October recalls a 1275 dispute with Asti. The town is the headquarters of Ferrero, the family company that invented Nutella, and the home of Beppe Fenoglio, whose Partisan novels are set in these same hills.

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Gallery

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Known for

Duomo di San Lorenzo
Twelfth-century cathedral with a late Gothic red-brick façade, vaulted nave and 16th-century inlaid wooden choir, on the line of the Roman forum.
Piazza Risorgimento
Central square on the site of the Roman forum, framed by the Duomo, the Palazzo Comunale and the surviving medieval brick towers.
Torri medievali
Roughly forty of the original hundred or more brick towers still rise above the rooftops, most clustered along Via Cavour and Via Vittorio Emanuele.
Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco
White truffle fair held across the weekends of October and November, the oldest and largest event of its kind in Italy.
Museo Civico Federico Eusebio
Archaeological and natural history museum holding the finds from Alba Pompeia, including mosaics and bronzes from the Roman city.

Signature product

Tartufo Bianco d'AlbaIGP

Italy's most prized white truffle, hunted in the woods around Alba from October through January.

See every town in our catalogue producing Tartufo Bianco d'Alba.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June are the green months in the Langhe hills, with mild evenings and vineyards in full leaf. July and August touch the mid-thirties; the centro storico empties between two and five in the afternoon. September and October are the heart of the year: harvest in the surrounding cantine, the Palio degli Asini on the first Sunday of October, and the opening weekends of the white truffle fair. The fair pulls weekend crowds into the piazzas through November, when restaurant prices climb and parking disappears. December through March is quieter, cold and often foggy in the Tanaro valley, but the truffle markets keep running through black truffle season.