The city of arcades and rum chocolates
At the confluence of the Stura and Gesso rivers, on a wedge-shaped plateau that gives the city its name ("cuneo" means wedge), Cuneo is the capital of the "Provincia Granda", the large province, the largest in Piedmont, at the foot of the Maritime Alps. Founded in 1198, it is an orderly, elegant city, with about eight kilometres of arcades and a perfectly straight plan.
Its heart is Via Roma, the historic main street, recently restored and pedestrianised, lined with arcaded palaces, cafés and shops, which leads to the huge Piazza Galimberti, a square of about 24,000 square metres surrounded by uniform arcaded buildings, where a large market is held every Tuesday. Among the monuments are the former church of San Francesco, a Gothic complex that houses the civic museum, the cathedral with a neoclassical façade, the Contrada Mondovì with its medieval arcades, and the Viadotto Soleri, a bridge-viaduct of 1937 that crosses the Stura valley. Cuneo is famous for its "cuneesi al rum", chocolates filled with rum-flavoured cream, created in 1923 by the pastry chef Andrea Arione, whose historic shop is in Piazza Galimberti; it is said that Ernest Hemingway came here to buy them. Cuneo is also the starting point for the valleys of the Maritime Alps.
Tip: in October, Cuneo hosts the "Fiera del Marrone", the chestnut fair; the Alpi Marittime Natural Park is a short drive away.
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