Bra attractions

Bra's attractions divide into a Baroque town centre and an idea.

The centre is Piedmont Baroque, walkable in an hour and a half, with two buildings worth stopping at: Santa Chiara, with its intricate dome by the late-Baroque architect Bernardo Antonio Vittone, and Sant'Andrea, whose façade was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and not completed for two centuries after.

Pollenzo, a frazione inside Bra's own boundaries, holds the two institutions the town is known for internationally: the Agenzia complex, headquarters of Slow Food, founded in 1986, and the University of Gastronomic Sciences, co-founded in 2004 and the first of its kind in the world. Neither is a ticketed attraction — they are working institutions — but Pollenzo is handsome and open and it is where this happened.

The Zizzola, the belvedere building on the hill above the town, is used as an exhibition space and gives the view over the plain.

And the thing most visitors actually come for is on a plate: salsiccia di Bra, a raw veal sausage, and the cheeses that gave the town its biennial international festival.