The centre of Piemonte's - indeed Europe's - rice-growing region is VERCELLI , where business people come to wheel and deal over prices in the Borsa del Riso, or rice stock exchange. If you've time to spare between trains, the Basilica of Sant'Andrea , just across from the station, is worth a peek. Built in the thirteenth century by a cardinal, its construction was funded with revenues from a Cambridgeshire monastery granted him by King Henry III as a reward for helping to establish him on the English throne. As the revenues were vast, it took only nine years to complete - an incredible feat at a time when churches frequently took over a century to build - and today it's an important church architecturally, one of the first in Italy to incorporate Gothic elements: pointed arches, slender columns shooting up to the vaults, and tall, slim conical-roofed belltowers flanking the facade.
The Cattedrale di Sant'Eusebio , at the end of Via Bicchieri, also deserves a visit, built on the site of a much more ancient basilica and with some fine old treasures and manuscripts in its library. Otherwise Vercelli's most atmospheric spot is Piazza Cavour , just off the main Corso Libertà, surrounded by pleasantly scruffy arcades and the scene of the Tuesday market. Close by, on Via Borgogna, the large Museo Pinacoteca Borgogna (summer Tues & Fri 2.30-5pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-noon; winter Tues & Fri 3-5.30pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-noon; free) holds the work of relatively unknown local artists together with the odd Brueghel and Jan Steen and some frescoes taken from local churches.
Vercelli's tourist office is at Viale Garibaldi 90 (Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 2.30-6.30pm; tel 0161.257.888). Finding a room in Vercelli can be a problem, with the hotels often full with rice-trade reps and the overspill from Turin's industrial fairs; it's advisable to phone in advance. The cheapest options are the Rondinella , Corso Gastaldi 15 (tel 0161.250.835; up to L60,000/?30.99), outside the bus station and a couple of minutes' walk to the right of the train station, and the Valsesia , at Via G. Ferraris 104 (tel 0161.250.842; L60,000-90,000/?30.99-46.48); both hotels have restaurants with very reasonably priced food. |
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