Third Sunday of September · Annual
For Asti’s twenty-one contrade, corporate delegations and sponsors who pair the Palio di Asti and the Douja d’Or with their own merchandise programme — contrada gifts, sponsor hospitality kits, limited editions for the victory dinners, programmes and high-volume gadgets for Piazza Campo del Palio — delivered in time for the Saturday-morning flag-throwing, the Renaissance-costume corteo, the Saturday-evening propiziatoria and the Sunday bareback race.
Asti is one of the wine capitals of Piedmont and sits in the heart of the Monferrato, between the UNESCO-listed vineyard landscapes of the Langhe-Roero and Monferrato. The Palio di Asti is the bareback horse race held every year on the third Sunday of September on the ring of Piazza Campo del Palio and involves Asti’s twenty-one historic contrade plus seven invited communes from the Monferrato and surrounding valleys, in a tradition documented under the seal of the Comune di Asti since the thirteenth century. The Palio weekend packs a dense calendar: the Saturday-morning flag-throwing, the Saturday-afternoon Renaissance corteo, the Saturday-evening propiziatoria — the eve race for the jockeys — and the Sunday race, with the cena della vittoria that runs into the night and that the contrade celebrate with menus customised in the colours of the winning contrada.
What makes the Palio di Asti distinctive for merchandise is its pairing with the Douja d’Or, the autumn Asti wine festival held in the second half of September under the coordination of the Asti Chamber of Commerce, FAI — Fondo Ambiente Italiano — and the Comune di Asti. Many of the same sponsors and corporate delegations attend both, and the Asti hub lets us consolidate the order book, the courier slot and the delivery reference over two consecutive weeks. For wine producers that take part in both we coordinate two batches with their own Pantone reference, tasting-bank inserts and recipient list, but with a single operational point of contact. For brand teams that follow the Palio but not the Douja we replicate only the Palio batch in race week.
Coordinating artwork, recipient quantities and named recipients is what keeps the kit on the cena della vittoria table or at the contrada’s pickup point instead of sitting in a courier warehouse. We run the pre-production (physical sample, Pantone map, hot-impression test on leather and ceramic, serigraphic print test on cotton), production on Italian supply chains — Scandicci leather, Maniago steel, Caltagirone and Faenza ceramics, Capannori paper mills, Collodi wood, Como silk — and delivery to an Asti hotel, the contrada venue or the sponsor residence in a window agreed with the buyer. For programmes that mix contrada friends, sponsor guests and corporate hospitality we split into recipient-labelled batches, with separate delivery addresses if a sponsor based in Milan or Turin prefers to collect its share from its own office rather than the Asti hub.
A recurring request is the cena della vittoria and the contrada dinners — the headcount is fixed only just before the race and the menus are often customised with the colours of the winning contrada. For these jobs we propose a neutral graphic base — matching marks applied to placemats, coasters, wooden place cards and card stock — and add the winning contrada’s details in a short second run, so that each guest leaves with a coordinated memento. FSC-certified paper and organic-cotton print quality is a frequent brand-team request, and we manage it with serigraphic and digital partners enrolled in the FSC and GOTS certification circuits. For wine producers that attend the cena della vittoria with their own bottles we coordinate temperature-controlled inserts.
For Italian clients with a VAT number the invoice is issued via the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate with 22% VAT in EUR; reduced rates of 4%, 5% or 10% are available for the product categories that qualify them (publishing, art objects, GI-labelled food and wine). Reverse charge for intra-EU buyers registered in VIES, split payment for public-administration stands, recipient code or PEC address for electronic invoice delivery. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (Legislative Decree 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability sheet per order with a Scope 3 CO₂e estimate following the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Milan–Asti route and from the production districts involved.
Sangallo-style wooden frames, hand-painted ceramics, silk ribbons in the contrada colours, ceramic trays and small leather goods with the contrada coat of arms and colours, numbered editions for the sala della consegna.
Canvas bags, lanterns, fans, printed bandanas and small promotional items for the fast hand-out around the square, the propiziatoria and the historical corteo, with morning-to-evening replenishment logistics.
Branded notebooks, beverage items (ceramic mugs, steel bottles), printed event programmes, leather and ceramic coasters reserved for sponsor suites and reserved grandstand seats.
Premium notebook-and-pen sets, silk pocket squares in the contrada colours, ceramic tasting cups, wooden place cards and printed menus for the cena della vittoria and corporate dinners.
Before production kicks off we lock artwork, recipient quantities, packaging and named pickup point. The exact contrada or sponsor venue is finalised only shortly before the race against the current hospitality list — Piazza Campo del Palio is a public space and cannot be used as a goods-reception address on race day. The ZTL of Asti and the night-time traffic restrictions constrain courier access, and most teams combine a central Asti hotel or a contrada venue with express pickup from the venue itself. For teams that manage multiple contrade in the same edition we replicate the logistics across two or three nodes, so that each referrer finds its batch a few minutes from the workstation instead of crossing the town.
For an Asti event we propose a central Asti hotel or the contrada venue as the primary delivery point, with an optional second delivery to a Turin office for sponsors that prefer to take possession of the kit after the race. B2B goods stay within Italy with a standard CMR and packing list; for CSRD-subject clients we attach a Scope 3 CO₂e sheet following the GHG Protocol on the Milan–Asti route and, on request, we add the data of the production districts involved. Cold-store logistics are not required for this event, but we regularly coordinate temperature-controlled deliveries for wine producers that attend the cena della vittoria with their own tasting stations and for bottles bound for the Douja d’Or.
For programmes involving international partners — banking foundations, automotive groups, fashion houses, lifestyle brands and European cultural institutions that use the Palio di Asti as a stop on their own representation season — we propose an accommodation and logistics-support service that covers the transfer from Milan or Turin, the coordination with Asti’s accommodation structure and the management of the cena della vittoria and the visits to Monferrato wineries. The single point of contact follows the programme from the brief through to the delivery of the last kit, and liaises with the Comitato Palio and with the Asti Chamber of Commerce for the operational aspects linked to the Douja d’Or. For those who want a continuing presence through the autumn Monferrato calendar we replicate the service on the area’s other wine events.
Eight to ten weeks is the safest window for production in Italy and shipment to an Asti hotel or the contrada venue. Six to seven weeks work when the product mix is simple and the artwork has already been approved. For teams that follow both the Palio and the Douja d’Or we replicate the batches and the window stretches to ten weeks.
No. Piazza Campo del Palio is a public square and cannot be used as a goods-reception address on race day. We deliver to an Asti hotel, the contrada venue or the sponsor residence, with a courier window agreed the day before. For the flag-throwing morning we propose a nearby hotel with a 24-hour turnaround and a confirmed deposit.
Yes. Contrada friends, sponsor guests and corporate hospitality can be packed and labelled as separate batches, with distinct delivery addresses if needed. For programmes that involve multiple contrade we replicate the batches per hub and consolidate them in cases labelled per logistics node.
No. Corp-Merch.IT is an external and independent B2B supplier that helps contrade, brand teams and sponsors prepare their own merchandise. It does not organise, sponsor or represent the Palio di Asti, the Comitato Palio di Asti, the Comune di Asti or the contrade themselves.
Corp-Merch.IT is an external and independent B2B supplier for the participating companies. This page helps contrade, brand teams and sponsors prepare their merchandise around the Palio di Asti and the Douja d’Or. It does not represent the Comitato Palio di Asti, the Comune di Asti or the race contrade.