There are Sundays when Liguria sits well on your shoulders, but curiosity calls for something different. Not the sea, this time. Not the salty alleyways of the caruggi, not the smell of focaccia coming from the ovens early in the morning. A Sunday when you feel like looking beyond the Apennines, toward that strip of Piedmont that borders Liguria almost without you noticing, changing the language of the landscape: the hills widen, vineyards take the place of olive groves, the air becomes drier and more continental.
It takes barely an hour from Genoa to find yourself in Alessandria, a city that few put on their agenda but which instead hides one of the most impressive fortifications in Europe, the story of a hat that became an international legend, pastry making filled with small masterpieces, and the memory of one of the most influential Italian intellectuals of the twentieth century. Alessandria is not a city that tells itself on social media: it must be discovered, lived at leisure, understood step by step. And it is precisely this, in an age of photographed and already-seen destinations, its greatest virtue.
A frontier city, between Piedmont and Liguria
Alessandria was born as a border and alliance city, founded by the communes of the Lombard League in the twelfth century for anti-imperial purposes, and has always had a hybrid character, a hinge between the Po Valley world and the Ligurian-maritime one. Walking through the historic center you can breathe exactly this: airy urban planning, wide squares, stately brick palaces that tell a story of trade and manufacturing, far removed from the verticality of Genoa’s caruggi.
The city’s heart is Piazza della Libertà, the main square where the Town Hall faces: spacious, airy, designed for public life and strolling, very different in proportions from the narrow squares of the Superba. From here branch out the streets of the center, with historic shops, bars with outdoor tables, and that peaceful pace typical of Piedmont provincial towns, where time seems to flow at a more leisurely rhythm compared to the summer coastal frenzy.
The Citadel, a fortress that few would expect
The reason Alessandria deserves a trip on its own is its Citadel, a star-shaped fortification among the largest and best-preserved in Europe, built in the eighteenth century under Savoyard rule on the banks of the Tanaro, facing the historic center. Seeing it from above, or even just glimpsing its imposing silhouette during a ground-level visit, gives you a sense of what it meant at the time to defend a strategic territory between Piedmont, Lombardy, and Liguria.
The structure was closed to the public for decades and used for military purposes, which paradoxically helped preserve it almost intact over time: bastions, powder magazines, inner courtyards, underground galleries tell a story of sophisticated military engineering, designed to withstand sieges with complex and redundant defense systems. In recent years the Citadel has been progressively opened for guided tours and events, and today represents one of the main reasons why it’s worth reaching Alessandria: it’s not the classic dusty fortress-museum, but a monument that can still be read in its original function, walking among the walls and trying to imagine the garrison soldiers, the maneuvers, the daily life within a defensive organism designed to last centuries.
The Borsalino and the city of straw
Alessandria has a second claim to fame, lighter but equally defining: it is the city of the Borsalino hat, the fedora that has dressed actors, movie gangsters, and elegant men all over the world for over a century. The Borsalino factory was born here in the nineteenth century and transformed Alessandria into an international hatmaking hub, so much so that the city is still remembered today as Italy’s capital of hats.
Today this industrial and artisanal history is told at the Borsalino Hat Museum, which traces the stages of production, the techniques of straw and felt processing, the historical tools and models that made the brand’s fortune in the twentieth century. It is a small museum but of great fascination for those who love the history of costume and Italian artisanal work, and allows you to understand how a provincial city managed to impose a symbolic object throughout the world, from Hollywood cinema to Europe’s great capitals.
The reference to Umberto Eco is not accidental: the great semiotician and writer, author of The Name of the Rose, was born in Alessandria in 1932, and the city maintains a deep connection with his figure, even if not necessarily through structured museum paths. Walking through these streets with the awareness that one of the most influential intellectuals of the late twentieth century was born here adds a layer of meaning to your visit: Alessandria is not just hats and fortifications, it is also a city that has been able to generate critical thought and narrative capable of crossing national boundaries.
Baci di dama and Alessandrian pastry
If the Citadel is the historical reason to come, and Borsalino is the industrial one, Baci di dama are the delicious reason. These small sweets, made of two hemispheres of hazelnut or almond paste joined by a veil of dark chocolate, are an invention disputed among several Piedmont cities, but Alessandria proudly claims a solid and recognized pastry tradition, made of historic bakeries that still prepare them according to recipes passed down through generations.
It’s worth taking some time to visit a pastry shop in the center of town, perhaps pairing Baci di dama with a coffee or a glass of local wine in the late afternoon. Piedmontese pastry here intertwines with that broader tradition that has made hazelnuts, chocolate, and creams famous throughout the world, and tasting it on location, without the filter of gift packaging, is a different sensory experience.
Barbera and Grignolino, the wines of the territory
The hills around Alessandria are part of a wine-growing region with a long tradition, where two grape varieties particularly beloved by Piedmontese people grow: Barbera, which here finds DOC expressions of good character, full body and lively acidity, a perfect companion to red meats and aged cheeses, and Grignolino, more delicate and spiced, less structured but capable of surprising for its fresh drinkability and its discreet elegance. A lunch or dinner in Alessandria is the ideal occasion to taste both, perhaps paired with a plate of agnolotti or a platter of Piedmontese cured meats, far removed from the maritime flavors we’re accustomed to on the Ligurian coast.
How to reach Alessandria from Genoa
Alessandria is easily reached either by car or by train, and is one of the simplest day trips to organize for those staying in Genoa without their own vehicle. By car, the most direct route follows the A26 motorway heading north toward Piedmont, with a travel time of around 45-55 minutes, depending on traffic especially in the Apennine sections. Parking in the city is never a serious problem: there are paid parking areas near the historic center and the station.
By train, Alessandria is connected to Genoa with regional and fast regional services with good frequency throughout the day, for a travel time of about one hour. It is probably the most convenient option for those who don’t want to deal with traffic and want to arrive directly in the heart of the city: Alessandria station is in fact just a few minutes’ walk from the historic center and Piazza della Libertà, which makes the trip perfectly feasible even without a car.
A typical day in Alessandria
If you leave Genoa early in the morning, you can arrive in Alessandria late in the morning and dedicate the first hours to visiting the Cittadella, perhaps with a guided tour that allows you to fully understand its defensive complexity. It’s the time of day when the light is best for photographing the bastions and inner courtyards, and when the temperatures, especially in summer, are still bearable for an outdoor walk.
Around noon you can return to the center for lunch, choosing a classic Piedmontese trattoria near Piazza della Libertà or nearby streets, where you can taste a first course of local tradition accompanied by a glass of Barbera. The early afternoon is well suited to visiting the Borsalino Hat Museum and taking a walk through the streets of the historic center, among shops, nineteenth-century architecture and the peaceful atmosphere of a city that lives without the pressure of mass tourism.
In the late afternoon, before heading back to Genoa, a stop in a historic pastry shop for Baci di dama is almost an obligatory ritual: a small sweet moment to take with you, literally, perhaps in a box to enjoy the same evening, back at your Genoa home. If the day falls on a Saturday, it’s worth arriving a bit earlier for the weekly market, which animates the streets of the center with stalls of typical products, fabrics and various items, offering an authentic snapshot of city life far from any tourist backdrop.
The detail that makes the trip worth it
What truly makes Alessandria special, more than any single monument, is the feeling of being in a city that has never stopped being itself. There are no crowds to dodge, no tourist routes under siege: the Cittadella is visited at leisure, the shops in the center are still frequented by residents more than tourists, the bartenders happily chat with you knowing you’re just passing through. It’s a city to be savored slowly, much like its Baci di dama, small but full of flavor, which don’t need to be large to be memorable. And it’s precisely in this timeless dimension, in this solid and unassuming Piedmontese province, that the most authentic charm of Alessandria is hidden: a city that, like its most illustrious citizens, prefers substance to form.
The return to Genoa
When evening falls on the Apennines and you head back toward the coast, take with you the taste of a different day: eighteenth-century fortresses, movie-star hats, almond paste pastries, a glass of Barbera sipped unhurriedly. Returning to Genoa, at the end of a trip like this, means returning home in the fullest sense of the word. Our residences in the heart of the city await you for a hot shower, a window open onto the Ligurian rooftops and the feeling of having experienced two worlds in a single day. If this Sunday you feel like really getting away, you can book your stay and organize the trip to Alessandria as part of a larger Genoa weekend, perhaps also browsing our other magazine suggestions for the coming Sundays out of town.
