Poesia in Piazza

A day of poetry in the heart of Monferrato

Poesia in Piazza is the literary event that brings the village of Viarigi to life, located in the province of Asti, in the heart of the Monferrato region. Established in 2025, the festival aims to bring poetry to the people, moving beyond exclusive professional circles to make it, as Mayor Francesca Ferraris likes to say, a "shared heritage" of the community. The heart of the event is the evocative former church of San Silverio, an intimate and charming space that welcomes the public for a full day dedicated to verse.

A day-long program

The format is that of a genuine literary marathon, open and participatory. The morning features the awards ceremony for the poetry competition reserved for local school students, a way to engage younger generations and bring them closer to the poetic word. Throughout the afternoon and evening, there is a rotation of readings by local and national poets, thematic recitals, interviews, and discussions.

• Readings in dialect and Italian by the authors themselves;
• Readings of foreign poets presented by their Italian translators;
• Poetic-musical interludes by Pier Paolo Sobrino;
• Cultural insights and author interviews.

A collaborative event

Poesia in Piazza is promoted by the Municipality of Viarigi in partnership with Edizioni Joker, a publishing house active in promoting contemporary poetry. The project is supported by a dense network of local associations: the Caffè Alzheimer, the Walking Group, the Pro Loco, the Retrò Association (which manages the local ethnographic museum), the Lions Club of Viarigi, and an amateur theater company. It is precisely this collaborative dimension that makes the event a meeting opportunity that goes far beyond literature alone.

Viarigi and Monferrato

Viarigi is a small hillside town in the Piedmont Region, nestled among the vineyards of the Monferrato area, a landscape recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visiting the village during Poesia in Piazza means combining the discovery of poetry with that of a territory defined by hills, wineries, and food and wine traditions. The event, which is free and open to all, confirms the cultural vocation of a municipality that has chosen poetry as a hallmark of its identity.