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Stemma di Bra

Piedmont · Cuneo

Bra

A Roero town where the world's first gastronomic university now teaches food systems.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
54 min from Turin
By train
Station in the comune
Population
29,523

Known for

  • SLOW FOOD

    International headquarters of the Slow Food movement, founded in town by Carlo Petrini in 1986; host of the biennial Cheese fair.

  • BRA DOP

    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.

  • SALSICCIA DI BRA

    Ground veal sausage with the local right to be eaten raw; subject of the BRA'S festival in the centro storico.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J8°
  • F12°
  • M14°
  • A18°
  • M22°
  • J27°
  • J30°
  • A30°
  • S24°
  • O19°
  • N12°
  • D7°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

The festa: santuario della Madonna dei Fiori, lunedì successivo alla terza domenica

Why come

Bra sits in the Roero hills, fifty kilometers southeast of Torino, on the north edge of the Langhe-Roero-Monferrato UNESCO wine landscape. The old center, with its porticoed Corso Garibaldi and Via Cavour, is the working core of town; above it a nineteenth-century pavilion looks out over the surrounding hills, and below, on the Tanaro, a frazione occupies the site of a Roman colony inside a former Savoy royal estate. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food here in 1986 in response to a McDonald's planned next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, and the movement's headquarters has stayed in town since.

In 1999 Bra was one of the four founding cities of Cittaslow, the small-town quality-of-life network. The biennial Cheese fair, the largest event in the world for raw-milk cheeses, fills the old center in odd-numbered Septembers, alongside the town's own DOP cheese and its ground veal sausage, eaten raw by local custom. A town this size holding a global food movement, a gastronomic university, and a Roman site within its own borders is not an accident of promotion: it reflects a place that has treated eating and its history as civic matters worth building institutions around.

The Sunday letter

Bra is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Bra comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Bra in our articles

How to get there

From Turin (TRN), about 1h 13m by car.

Genoa (GOA) is about 2 hours away.

By car from the centre of Milan 2h 12m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Turin, Genoa or Milan?

Coming by train into Torino Porta Susa? Bra is about 53 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Turin airport.

Bra, photo 1
Bra, photo 2

What to see

  • La Zizzola

    Octagonal pavilion on the hill above town, reached as 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; the former Savoy royal estate there now houses the gastronomic university.

  • Centro storico

    Long porticoed Corso Garibaldi and Via Cavour, lined with Piedmontese Baroque palazzi and historic cafés.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Bra fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

  • BattaglinoRistorante

    Battaglino has a Michelin Bib Gourmand, one Gambero Rosso fork (79/100) and a Slow Food snail.

  • BoccondivinoRistorante

    Boccondivino holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Slow Food snail.

  • Caffè Pasticceria ConversoPasticceria

    Caffè Pasticceria Converso has a place on Italy's historic-locali register to its name.

  • Osteria del BoccondivinoTrattoria

    Osteria del Boccondivino holds two Gambero Rosso prawns.

  • Osteria La PimpinellaRistorante

    Osteria La Pimpinella holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

  • Scuderie SabaudeRistorante

    Scuderie Sabaude holds a spot in the Michelin Guide.

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 the towns we cover in the zone of Bra DOP.

Signature dish

Salsiccia di BraMeat

A soft, finely minced raw veal sausage, once granted a special licence to be eaten uncooked.

See every town in our catalogue with a dish of its own.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Living here

  • Population 29,523
  • Commuter belti
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Turin, 1 h 13 min drive
  • Regional capital Torino, 54 min drive

Common questions

What is Bra known for?
Bra is a Roero town at 290 meters where the world's first gastronomic university now teaches food systems.
Where is Bra?
Bra is a comune in the province of Cuneo, in Piedmont.
What is the nearest airport to Bra?
Turin (TRN), about 1h 13m by car.
Can you get to Bra without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Milan to Bra?
About 2h 12m by car.
When is the best time to visit Bra?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 30 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 15 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Bra?
Yes. Bra's - Bra and Festival della Salsiccia. September is when the first of them falls.
Which other towns are like Bra?
Venaria Reale, Avigliana and Assisi.
How many people live in Bra?
29,523 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 290 m
  • Population: 29,523
  • Surface area: 59.53 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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