We are planning a trip (2008) to Asti for the Palio that takes place in September. I have reserved rooms in town so far but wondered if you can comfortably stay outside of the city and get in and out for the different activities over the week end. Is parking an issue? I will have reserved sits for the race. Any information from someone who has attended this event would be helpful.
Thanks

Bobthenavigator will be attending the 2007 event. He's staying at: http://www.villasampaguita.com/Live/home.cfm which is about 3-4 miles outside of the city. Excellent place if you can book a room.

I'm sure he'll post a trip report about the event once he returns on here or on slowtrav.

Budman,

Is this where you stayed when visiting Piedmont, I can not find your trip report?

Thank you,
Robyn

Yes. I didn't do a trip report.

I looked at the Villa Sampaguita but must stay there a week. We wanted more flexibility while we traveled. hotel Lis has reserved rooms and will get us the tickets for the race. I did n't want to be obligated to the villa for dinners

This is not a plug for staying at our place, however I should like to point out that the Palio di Asti is the culmination of a week of festivities in Asti, starting with the Sagre on the weekend before and leading up to the Palio including the wonderful spectacle of the Palio di Sbandieratori (flag throwers) on Thusrday night (Suz, don't miss this if you are in town) and the weeklong Douja d'Or wine festival. When we first started our B&B outside Asti, we took bookings for the Palio weekend only and found ourselves turning away many requests from people who wanted to come for the entire week, hence our decision to only take one week stays during Palio week, we are only a small B&B and there are many hotels in Asti to cater for folks who only want to take in the Palio. Out of this evolved our Palio package in which we offer a complete weeks package with tours of the region and all meals included both in local restaurants and at our place, but this is not obligatory, if someone wants to stay here the whole week and do there own thing its quite OK with us.

For Suz, I would say that the hotel Liz is quite adequate and central. There are other hotels in central Asti too (Palio, Reale, Aleramo)and all hotels will arrange for Palio tickets. It will be probably a bit noisy in town at times, but then its festival week. Check to see what their parking arangements are if you have a car. Staying outside of Asti is OK, ad parking is only an issue on the day of the Sagre and Palio, usually you need to park away from the centre of town and walk a bit unless you go early. We use taxis to ferry our guest in and out.

Thanks for the last reply. I will contacat you directly to discuss your suggestions