St. John's Night

A night of magic among the lavender

There is one night in the heart of summer when the small village of Sale San Giovanni, in the province of Cuneo, transforms into a place suspended between nature and legend. It is St. John's Night, which falls between June 23 and 24, just a few days after the summer solstice: the most anticipated moment for those who love rural traditions and earth-bound rituals. Here, where the Piedmontese Bassa Langa turns violet thanks to over forty hectares of cultivated lavender, the evening takes on a truly unique charm.

The village of lavender

Sale San Giovanni is known as the "lavender village" of Piedmont, a little Provence nestled in the hills just minutes from Ceva. Between June and July, its fragrant fields attract visitors from all over Italy, but it is precisely on St. John's Night that the bond between the village and its medicinal plants becomes most intense. In addition to lavender, the town's hills are home to organic crops of sage, thyme, hyssop, lemon balm, Roman chamomile, helichrysum, wild fennel, and even Enkir, one of the first cereals domesticated by humans.

The tradition of St. John's water

The symbolic heart of the evening is the ancient custom of St. John's water, the "dew of the gods." According to popular tradition, on the night between June 23 and 24, flowers and herbs—lavender, St. John's wort, mallow, sage, rose, elderberry—are gathered and left to infuse in a basin of water, exposed all night to the moon and the dew. On the morning of June 24, one washes their face and hands with this fragrant water: a propitious gesture that, according to rural beliefs, brings health, luck, and love.

The Arboreto Prandi

The meeting point for the event is the Arboreto Prandi, a botanical collection created at the beginning of the 20th century by Carlo Domenico Prandi, who gathered rare conifers, broad-leaved trees, and exotic species there. The paths winding through the medicinal plant crops make this place the ideal setting to rediscover the secrets of herbalism and the relationship between man and nature.

A Piedmontese heritage

St. John's Night in Sale San Giovanni is part of the wider lavender blooming season, which enlivens the village every year with walks, fairs, and visits to historical churches—the Pieve di San Giovanni and the small church of Sant'Anastasia. It is an event that combines landscape, popular spirituality, and gastronomic tradition, making this corner of the Province of Cuneo an unmissable destination for those seeking an authentic experience in rural Piedmont.