Vercelli

"Vercelli (Vërsèj en piamontés) es una ciudad de Italia en la región del Piamonte, provincia de Vercelli. Tiene unos 60.000 habitantes y está situada a la orilla derecha del río Sesia. Se encuentra en medio de una gran llanura, entre Milán y Turín, y entre Suiza y el mar Ligur, muy bien irrigada y rodeada de campos de arroz, producto que exporta a todo el mundo y del que es uno de los mayores mercados europeos. Su nombre deriva del celta Wercel, (Guardia de los celtas)."

"Vercelli [vertlli] (Vërsèj in Piedmontese), is a city and comune of about 47,000 inhabitants in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around the year 600 BC. The city is situated on the river Sesia in the plain of the river Po between Milan and Turin. It is an important centre for the cultivation of rice, and is surrounded by rice paddies, which are flooded in the summer. The climate is typical of the Po Valley with cold, foggy winters (0.4 °C (33 °F) in January) and oppressive heat during the summer months (23.45 °C (74 °F) in July). Rainfall is most prevalent during the spring and autumn; thunderstorms are common in the summer. The languages spoken in Vercelli are Italian and Piedmontese; the variety of Piedmontese native to the city is called Varsleis. The world's first university funded by public money was established in Vercelli in 1228 (the seventh university founded in Italy), but was closed in 1372.Today it has a university of literature and philosophy as a part of the Università del Piemonte Orientale and a satellite campus of the Politecnico di Torino."