What is Bra known for?

International headquarters of the Slow Food movement, founded in town by Carlo Petrini in 1986; host of the biennial Cheese fair. Cow's-milk cheese (with up to 10% sheep or goat) granted DOC in 1982 and DOP in 1996, in hard (duro) and tender (tenero) forms. Ground veal sausage with the local right to be eaten raw; subject of the BRA'S festival in the centro storico.

Bra is a comune in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont region of Italy, about 58 kilometers from Torino.

Piedmont · Cuneo

Bra

A Roero townwhere Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 and the world's first gastronomic university now teaches food systems.

58 km / 36 mi

Nearest hub (Torino)

29,523

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Bra sitsin the Roero hills, fifty kilometers southeast of Torino, on the north edge of the Langhe-Roero-Monferrato UNESCO wine landscape. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food here in 1986 in response to a McDonald's planned next to the Spanish Steps in Rome. The movement still has its headquarters in town. In 1999 Bra was one of the four founding cities of Cittaslow, the small-town quality-of-life network. The University of Gastronomic Sciences, founded by Slow Food in 2004, runs from the former royal estate at Pollenzo, a frazione of Bra. The biennial Cheese fair, the largest event in the world for raw-milk cheeses, fills the centro storico in odd-numbered Septembers. Bra cheese has been a DOP since 1996, and the salsiccia di Bra, ground veal traditionally eaten raw, has its own annual festival. Above the town stands the Zizzola, an octagonal nineteenth-century pavilion that gives the city its panorama over the Langhe.

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Gallery

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Known for

La Zizzola
Octagonal nineteenth-century pavilion on the hill above town, the symbol of Bra and the best panoramic point over the Langhe and Roero.
Palazzo Mathis
Fourteenth-century palazzo on the central piazza with frescoed main floor and eighteenth-century oil-painted door covers, now used for exhibitions.
Palazzo Traversa
Fifteenth-century building housing the Museo di Archeologia, Storia e Arte, with finds from the Roman colony of Pollentia.
Pollenzo
Frazione on the Tanaro built over the Roman Pollentia; now home to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in the former Savoy royal estate.
Centro storico
Long porticoed Corso Garibaldi and Via Cavour, lined with Piedmontese Baroque palazzi and historic cafés.

Signature product

Bra DOPDOP

Cuneo-province cow's-milk cheese, semi-hard, in two ages (tenero, duro); named for the town that holds the late-September Slow Food cheese fair.

See every town in our catalogue producing Bra DOP.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months Bra runs cleanest. The Roero hills colour up around the town, the cellars hold tastings, and the Cheese fair takes the centro storico in September of odd years. July and August get hot in the Tanaro plain below, and the porticoes on Corso Garibaldi become the cool part of town between four and seven in the afternoon. November through March is quiet, often with fog rising from the river. The cafés on Via Cavour keep their pace, the university stays in session in Pollenzo, and a winter visit gets the Zizzola and its panorama with no other walkers on the hill.