Conzano (AL)

Why is there a Piazza Australia in Conzano? To solve the mystery we must go back in time more than a hundred years, to the end of the 19th century, during the Great Depression. The economic difficulties of the time pushed many people to abandon their homeland to seek fortune elsewhere. In that period, many Conzano residents moved to northern Queensland, Australia, to work cutting sugar cane: in this activity, in fact, the skills acquired in growing vines, typical of these areas of Monferrato, were useful. A strong bond has been maintained over time between the local Conzano community and the expatriate Conzano community: so in 1992 the town chose to pay tribute to its emigrant fellow citizens by changing the name of the square, from Piazza d’Armi to Piazza Australia.

This is also a very small town and when I passed, perhaps because of the bad weather and lunchtime, not a single person showed up.
In the photo, the town square which houses the pharmacy, the grocery store, a post office and the parish church dedicated to Santa Lucia.