The Carmagnola pepper comes in four canonical shapes — horn, square, spinning-top and tumaticot — and its late-August festival ranks among Italy's largest celebrations of a single vegetable: ten days, hundreds of thousands of visitors, and bagna cauda as its natural destiny.
In harvest weeks the market stalls become a palette from yellow to fire red. Off season, stuffed peppers and pepper compote keep the town's flag flying on Piedmontese tables.