Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Alba

Because the front of this church spells the name of the town, and almost nobody looks up long enough to notice.

Four bas-reliefs of 1878 carry the symbols of the evangelists, in the traditional order from the left: the Angelo of Matthew, the Leone of Mark, the Bue of Luke, the Aquila of John. A-L-B-A.

Inside is a tall brick Gothic church rebuilt between 1486 and 1517, with vaults painted as a starry sky. From the church that stood here in the 11th century, only four things survive: the bell tower, the three portals, the facade portico and the crypt.

There is no friction. It is the cathedral in the middle of town, on piazza Risorgimento, and it is a working church rather than a ticketed monument.

The tactic: do it with the Palazzo Comunale on the same square — the same 19th-century architect, Giorgio Busca, worked on both.

This is the cathedral of a living diocese. No ticket means the usual compact is the admission price: quiet, covered shoulders, no flash, nothing during a service.

The frescoes are 19th-century and the vaults are painted. The decorative apparatus of the vaults and walls was carried out from 1871 by several artists; it is surface work, and surface work is what flash and damp damage.

Leave something. A cathedral with free entry in a town of 31,000 people is maintained by the diocese and the parish.

Piazza Risorgimento is the town's civic square, not a monument forecourt — the Palazzo Comunale on it is a working town hall.

Where. Piazza Risorgimento, in the historic centre of Alba, province of Cuneo. It is the cathedral of the diocese of Alba and the square is the historic heart of the town.

Admission and hours. It is a working cathedral, not a ticketed monument, and no visiting hours or admission charge are given for it in the record. Access follows the life of the church.

Getting in. A cathedral keeps longer and more regular hours than a village parish church, and around a service is always reliable.

How long. Half an hour. Give some of it to the facade before you go in — the four evangelist reliefs are the thing most visitors miss — and some to looking up at the starry vaults.

Combine it with the Palazzo Comunale on the same square, and with the surviving medieval towers between piazza Risorgimento and via Cavour.

Note. The crypt is one of the four survivals of the 11th-century church; nothing in the record describes separate access arrangements for it.

No visiting hours are published for the cathedral, so the practical answer is daytime, and around rather than during a service.

10 August is San Lorenzo, the cathedral's own dedication — the one day its patronal life is certain to be visible.

October and early November are the busiest weeks in Alba, because of the truffle fair. The town is full; the cathedral is one of the few places in it that absorbs people without queueing.

Bright days for the facade, any day for the inside. The evangelist reliefs and the rose window are brick-and-stone carving on a west-facing front; low afternoon light picks them out far better than noon.

Winter is cold inside, as any unheated brick church of this size is, and the Langhe fog reaches the square.