Vercelli

Vercelli rises from an ocean of flooded rice paddies between Turin and Milan, one of the oldest cities of northern Italy and an unexpected treasure house: a Romanesque-Gothic basilica of European rank, a cathedral library that guards one of the earliest surviving books of English literature, and kitchens that built a cuisine on the rice grown all around.

Why visit

Most travellers cross the rice plain at speed and never stop, which makes Vercelli’s rewards feel like discoveries. The Basilica of Sant’Andrea, begun in 1219, stands among the most significant medieval buildings in Italy, its unmistakable silhouette floating above the fields. In the cathedral’s chapter library lies the Vercelli Book, an Old English manuscript containing “The Dream of the Rood” — a reason alone for literary pilgrims. The city itself is compact and walkable, with medieval towers, a fine picture gallery and a working atmosphere shaped by rice, not tourism; its trattorie serve panissa, the local rice-and-bean dish, exactly as the city has eaten it for generations. A day here, or a day plus the Sacred Mount in the valley above, is time beautifully spent.

Character and history

Vercelli’s recorded life begins around 600 BC as a centre of the Ligurian Libici, and its position on the road between the plains made it a Roman municipium — the consul Marius crushed the Cimbri nearby in 101 BC. As a free commune from 1120 it grew rich on cloth and learning, hosting in 1228 what is described as the world’s first publicly funded university. Its medieval confidence still shows in the cluster of towers over the old market square, the finest being the Torre dell’Angelo. The city passed to the House of Savoy in 1427, and its later history unfolded quietly between faith and scholarship: Saint Eusebius, the city’s patron, founded its cathedral in the fourth century, and the chapter library accumulated manuscripts of European importance, including the fourth-century Codex Vercellensis. Modern Vercelli belongs to the rice: flooded paddies encircle the city, transforming with the seasons, and the Riso festival each September celebrates the harvest that underpins the plain’s economy.

What to see

The Basilica of Sant’Andrea commands the edge of the centre: commissioned by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, a blend of Lombard Romanesque and early Gothic with one of the first uses of flying buttresses in Italy, an austere gabled facade, twin towers and a serene cloister beside it. Its bell tower opens to visitors on special occasions for the view over the plain. In the heart of the city stands the Cathedral of Sant’Eusebio, rebuilt in the eighteenth century on ancient foundations, and beside it the Museum of the Cathedral Treasury and Chapter Archive, home of the Vercelli Book.

Art and history fill the surrounding blocks. The Borgogna Museum, a house-museum picture gallery spanning five centuries, and the Camillo Leone Civic Museum, rich in archaeology and applied arts, anchor the western quarter; the Luigi Bruzza Archaeological Museum occupies the former monastery of Santa Chiara. Temporary exhibitions fill the ARCA exhibition venue, a deconsecrated medieval church under a modern glass-and-steel roof. Above Piazza Cavour rises the Angel Tower, the city’s emblem. The Renaissance Church of San Cristoforo holds frescoed interiors worth a pause, the Moorish-style Synagogue of Vercelli of 1878 testifies to a nineteenth-century community, and the horseshoe-shaped Teatro Civico of 1814 keeps the city’s operatic tradition, linked to the Viotti International Music Competition.

How to experience

Begin at Sant’Andrea in the morning light, when the plain behind it often lies under a mirror of floodwater. Reserve a visit to the cathedral treasury to see the Vercelli Book and its companions, then walk the towers-and-porticoes circuit of the centre and stop for panissa with a glass of Gattinara. Cyclists and drivers should get out into the paddies — the rice-field roads east of the city are the region’s defining landscape, best in the flooding season from spring through early summer. Time a visit against the calendar: the September rice festival and spring music seasons bring the city most alive, and seasonal openings of the tower and synagogue vary, so confirm on the municipal and museum websites.

Practical planning

Vercelli sits directly on the Turin–Milan railway and motorway, making it one of the easiest Piedmontese cities to reach — under an hour from either metropolis. The station and parking sit close to the flat centre, which is entirely walkable. Spring and autumn suit the light on the fields; summer can be hot on the plain. Museum days and hours differ — the Borgogna and Leone museums keep their own calendars — so sequence the indoor visits against the published schedules and hold the basilica and piazza circuit for whenever the weather is kind.

Nearby places

Up the Sesia valley, the mountain town of Varallo guards the UNESCO-listed Sacred Mount, the natural second act to a Vercelli stay. Across the rice plain to the east, Casale Monferrato offers its baroque synagogue and Monferrato palazzi on the border of the UNESCO-listed vineyard hills.