Whether or not you want to taste wine, ALBA repays a visit, for its central core of red-brick medieval towers, Baroque and Renaissance palaces and cobbled streets lined with gastronomic shops is one of Piemonte's most alluring. And if you come in October, there's a chance to see the town's hilarious annual donkey race - a skit on nearby Asti's prestigious Palio.

Of things to see, the late-Gothic Duomo on the central Piazza Risorgimento has been gaudily restored and holds some fine Renaissance stalls, inlaid with cityscapes, musical instruments, and fake cupboards whose contents seem to be on the verge of falling out. But Alba is primarily a place to stroll and eat. Via Vittorio Emanuele , the main drag, leads up to the centre from Piazza Savona, and is a fine, bustling street, with the most tempting of Alba's local produce on display - wines, truffles, cheeses, weird and wonderful varieties of mushroom, and the wickedly sticky nocciola , a nutty, chocolatey cake. Via Cavour is another pleasant medieval street with plenty of wine shops, behind which the donkey race and displays of medieval pageantry attract the crowds during the festival at the beginning of October. There's also an annual truffle festival later in the month, when you could blow your whole budget on a knobbly truffle or a meal in one of the many swanky restaurants. At the end of April/beginning of May, the Vinum festival gives the chance to taste five hundred Barolo, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and Roero wines.