Bra & Pollenzo

Bra seems like a small, unassuming Piedmontese town, but as the place where the Slow Food movement first took root in 1986, it's also something of a gastronomic pilgrimage site. There are defiantly no supermarkets in the historic centre, where small, family-run shops are replete with organic sausages, handcrafted chocolates and fresh local farm produce. Naturally, shops shut religiously for a 'slowdown' twice a week. Just down the hill sits Pollenzo, a slightly less picturesque but still pretty town, with the Slow Food movement's very own University of Gastronomic Sciences at its heart.