In clear winter dawns the whitewashed Monviso is tinged with pink. A brief but unmissable spectacle, an excellent sign for a good start to a visit to the ancient capital of the Marquisate!
To welcome visitors, especially on Sundays in February, there are the protagonists of the Saluzzo carnival. They are the Castellana and Ciaferlin, a charming lady of the Marquis’s court and a friendly villager always up for a joke.
Every year a parade of allegorical floats is organised, with papier-mâché creations and floats decorated with the main product of the Saluzzo area, fruit.
The town is a natural open-air shopping centre. There are hundreds of elegant shops where you can find the right gift for Christmas or take advantage of the sales season. It’s great to stroll through the pedestrian “living room” of Corso Italia to admire the shop windows! Between one shop and another, it is a must to refresh oneself with a hot chocolate in one of the many cafés in the centre, perhaps together with a “saluzzese al rhum” chocolate or the typical dried “paste di meliga” biscuits.
Between the beginning of winter and the Epiphany, on sunny mornings, you can witness a unique and mysterious phenomenon: the shadow of the Torre Civica reaches the bell tower of San Giovanni until it fits perfectly. Is this a coincidence or a deliberate homage that the ancient inhabitants of the city wanted to pay to the new-born Christ with their symbol? Try to find out for yourself by admiring this ‘dance of shadows’!
The Remembrance Day celebrations are very much in evidence. On 27th January each year, the victims of the Shoah and those deported for political reasons during the Nazi-Fascist occupation are commemorated. On this occasion, a participatory commemoration is held, and the old synagogue and the Israelite cemetery are open to the public.
