Palio di Asti - 2026

Hi Mike, I attended it last year, and what a fun local historical event! I contacted the main website for tickets and wasn’t hearing back from them. I stayed at Hotel Lis in Asti, so I sent them a message through Booking,com, and they very nicely bought me a ticket for the section where I wanted to sit near the finish line. I paid them for it when I arrived to check into the hotel.

Get there early! There’s several parades, and Sunday morning the neighborhoods are having their own procession that goes into their church. I have some amazing photos of that happening. And all of the people who were in the various parades file into the piazza as a long procession, also, before the race begins. I was there Saturday & Sunday and busy with events or a museum almost the entire time.

Hi Jean, thanks for your suggestion - I will look into spending the night in Asti

Mike, I plan be at the Palio. I requested a ticket per instructions on the Palio’s website (scroll down past the pictures on the attached link). I have yet to receive a response. Per Jean’s suggestion I emailed my hotel and they put in a request for me.
https://visit.asti.it/en/september-in-asti/the-palio-of-asti/

Have a great trip! Buon Viaggio!

Thanks AZ. I have also put in a request to the official site (just yesterday) and am awaiting a response. What section did you request - I'd like to be in a shaded section.

Mike,
First choice is Tribuna Alfieri Centrale/Coperto. Second choice is Tribuna Alfieri Arrivo. I don’t know how they delegate tickets but it is not what we are use to.

If you were a month later, the Palio Degli Asini is in Alba, which IIRC is closer to Barolo. A different kind of spectacle, to be sure, created as a mockery of the Asti overlord’s celebration. ;-).

Seconding or thirding the idea of staying in Asti for the night before, adding the idea of staying a second night. The processions and the celebration after are all something.

Mike, the Palio di Asti flag-holders attended the Italian-themed fest in Antibes this past February. There were some very beautiful young women among their members (sound of slap). Their blue-and-white medieval uniforms were authentic and their accompanying horn troupe were the finale to that affair, appearing in the Square of the Resistance Martyrs right after the Venetian costume troupe.
I am done. The end.

You can now buy tickets online - go to www.bigliettoveloce.it You will need to create an account with BigliettoVeloce from the home page and then select Palio 2026 under Now available. You can pay with a credit card.

Thanks for the info Mike. My hotel (Hotel Lis) has been very helpful ordering a ticket for me. I will pick it up and pay the hotel when I check in on Sept 4.

Palio di Asti - Logistics Trip Report

The Palio di Asti is a wonderful cultural experience held on the first Sunday of September. You can get additional information about the event at https://visit.asti.it/en/september-in-asti/the-palio-of-asti/.

Tickets – You can buy tickets online - go to www.bigliettoveloce.it You will need to create an account with BigliettoVeloce from the home page and then select Palio 202X under “Now available”. You can pay with a credit card. You will receive a confirmation email with the tickets which you can print out. For 2026, the online tickets were available starting July 20th. It is hot in the sun, so buy tickets in shade – any section other than 5, 6 & 8. Also get tickets as high up as possible for best viewing – most stands have only about 10 rows.

Getting there – I would strongly recommend staying in Asti the night of the event so you can enjoy the entire day without any time constraints, but that is not what we did. We ended up taking public transportation from Alba (we were staying nearby) to Asti, however, the final return bus left at 20:03 (8:03pm) and we were not able to stay for the awards presentation.

Public transportation – on Sundays, the train from Alba to Asti goes through Turin and takes about 4 hours so that is not an option. Instead, a bus (which leaves from the train station or “Stazione Ferroviaria”, not the bus station) leaves every 2 hours, starting at 7:03am. The bus leaves from the front of the train station – FS 45 Asti. We took the 11:03 bus that arrived at 11:58am. For the return – FS 47 Alba, the last bus leaves at 20:03 (8:03pm) from the same place that you are dropped off. This is an intercity bus with about 50 seats and there were only 20 people on the bus. You can buy bus tickets online using the Moeves App – choose “Suburban tickets” for €5,10/ticket (you activate the ticket as you enter bus) or pay cash on the bus for €6,60/ticket.

We happened to be in Alba on Saturday, and the Tourist Office was very helpful providing advice along with a map of Asti and the bus schedule.

Driving – definitely a better option – we arrived by bus at noon and were dropped off next to the bus station. At that time, there was very little traffic. Come in Corso Savona to Piazza Campo Del Palio. We saw a large parking lot with plenty of available parking. Not sure when it fills up, but when we left, it was full.

Historical Procession – this is a must see – we watched from Piazza S. Secondo, and it is very hot in the sun. Try to arrive by 13:30 (1:30pm) and find a place in the shade.

Thank you so much for circling back here and reporting on the Palio di Asti!

I have attended the Palio di Siena (which is mind-blowing, partly because of the sheer scale and depth of the week leading up to it), and that got me interested in the lesser known Palio in the region. So I appreciate your tips for whenever I can manage to get back there and see how they do it in Asti.

For those who are curious about these regional events, search YouTube for them because many now post videos of various events, processions, and races. I'm not really into horse racing itself, but it's the depth of long historical tradition that the culture has built around these races that is so fascinating to me. They definitely do not all do them the same way. From watching the videos I like how they are smaller-scaled and more intimate, as opposed to the wall of spectacle that is the Palio di Siena.

When I first went, it was something you could never see unless you went there. Today, not only can you get a sense of them from YouTube, they live-stream the Palio di Siena and the historical procession so I follow it from home.

Brio, yes, the actual horse race in Asti is just a small amount of time compared to all of the events leading up to it. I highly recommend staying in Asti for the entire weekend, especially if you like photography. There’s so many special photo moments & lots of color in them.