Ninety years ago, if you wanted to buy chestnuts in New York in autumn, you would probably have looked for “Cuneos”. Cuneo, today a town of 56,000 inhabitants in northwestern Italy, an hour from the French border and from Turin, was once the main chestnut market in northern Italy. From Cuneo, chestnuts were taken to Genoa and shipped across the Atlantic to New York. In 1936, for the first edition of the Chestnut Fair, Cuneo’s main square, Piazza Galimberti, hosted a reproduction of the Port of Genoa, complete with a huge boat — sadly, with no sea to sail. The outbreak of World War II brought the Chestnut Fair to an end. It was revived only in 1999, and has since attracted thousands of visitors, including many from abroad.

From October 16 to 18, the Fair returns for its 27th edition, offering a must-visit event not only for food lovers but for anyone seeking an experience defined by authenticity—with no AI in sight. For three days, Cuneo will become the kingdom of the chestnut, with the fruit served in every imaginable form: roasted, transformed into marrons glacés, and incorporated into dishes in restaurants across the city. The upcoming edition will be the last to be classified as a national fair. From 2027, the Chestnut Fair will officially have international status, recognizing an appeal that extends well beyond Italy’s borders. An appeal also acknowledged by the online edition of The New York Times, which in September 2025 included the Fair among “Europe’s Most Delectable Fall Harvest Festivals”. At the end of June 2026, the National Chestnut Fair of Cuneo came to New York, just as its chestnuts did a century ago—this time to be celebrated and sampled at the Consulate General of Italy.

The Municipality of Cuneo, which oversees the organization of the Fair, stressed that the event is just the highlight of a series of fairs held across the so-called “Provincia Granda”, one of Italy’s largest provinces, showcasing its autumnal treasures. And when it comes to chestnuts, the province has plenty to celebrate: 95% of Piedmont’s chestnut production comes from this area. Piedmont itself ranks third among Italian regions for the surface area devoted to chestnut groves, after Campania and Calabria.