Discover Bra

Bra is a town of 29,466 people across 59.53 km² at 285 metres, on the western edge of the Langhe hills where they fall away into the Piedmont plain. It is twenty minutes from Alba and it is a completely different kind of place: a Baroque market town rather than a wine village, and the one town in these hills whose fame rests on an idea.

Slow Food was founded in 1986 and is headquartered here, at the Agenzia complex in Pollenzo, a frazione inside Bra's own boundaries. Carlo Petrini, who founded it, is from Bra. The movement now works through local chapters it calls condotte, with over a million activists across 160 countries and 244 territorial groups in Italy, for what it describes as the right to pleasure and to food that is good, clean and fair. In 2004 it co-founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo — the first in the world — with the Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna regions.

Bra also hosts Cheese, Slow Food's biennial international gathering of artisan cheesemakers. The scale is not notional: in 1997 it drew some 150,000 visitors to a town of under thirty thousand.

The older town is worth the walk on its own account. The historic centre is north Italian Baroque, with the intricately domed church of Santa Chiara by the late-Baroque architect Bernardo Antonio Vittone, and Sant'Andrea, whose façade was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and not completed until two centuries later. And there is salsiccia di Bra: a veal sausage, made originally for the Jewish inhabitants of neighbouring Cherasco, and eaten raw.

Why come to Bra?

Because Slow Food was founded here in 1986 and is still headquartered here, and because the world's first University of Gastronomic Sciences opened at Pollenzo in 2004. Also because it is a handsome Baroque town with a Vittone dome and a Bernini façade, it eats extremely well, and it is flat.

Can I visit Slow Food or the university?

They are working institutions rather than visitor attractions — an office and a campus, both at Pollenzo inside Bra's boundaries, neither with a ticket office. Pollenzo is open and handsome and worth the short drive to see where this happened, but do not expect a museum. Contact Slow Food directly if you want more than that.

When is Cheese?

It is biennial, and we deliberately do not give the next dates: the festival's own site could not be reached when this page was written, and we do not publish operational details from anywhere other than the organiser. Ask Slow Food. If it falls in your year, book months ahead — in 1997 it drew some 150,000 visitors to a town of under thirty thousand.

Is Bra a good base for the Langhe?

Yes, and specifically a cheaper one. Alba is twenty minutes east and Barolo and La Morra around half an hour. During Alba's truffle fair — 10 October to 6 December 2026 — accommodation there behaves like a capital city's and Bra does not. Bra also has a station, which almost nowhere else here does.

What is salsiccia di Bra?

A veal sausage, not pork, originally made for the Jewish inhabitants of neighbouring Cherasco, and eaten raw. It is the town's own food and ordering it is the right thing to do. Buy it from a butcher or eat it in a restaurant, and skip it if you should not eat raw meat.

What should I see in an hour and a half?

Santa Chiara, for the intricate dome by Bernardo Antonio Vittone; Sant'Andrea, whose façade Bernini designed and the town finished two centuries later; and the arcaded streets between them. Then lunch.

Do I need a car?

Not for Bra, which is flat, walkable and on the railway — the one town in this group you can do without one. For the hills east of here, yes.

Is Bra part of the UNESCO vineyard site?

No. The inscription of 22 June 2014 covers three Langhe areas — the Langa of Barolo, the castle of Grinzane Cavour and the Hills of Barbaresco — all east of here. The vineyard landscape begins just beyond Bra; the town itself is not in it.