Founded in 1939 by the agronomist Igino Ambrosini, passionate about local history, and rebuilt after the war, the Umbrella and Parasol Museum since 1976 is located in Gignese, in a two-storey building reproducing the silhouette of three umbrellas side by side. It houses about 1500 pieces including handles, sticks, umbrellas and parasols and tells the evolution of fashions that have influenced the style of these accessories from the 1800s to today. It also includes historical pieces, umbrellas that belonged to painters, cardinals, as well as the parasol of Queen Margherita, whose family used to vacation in Stresa.

Located in the historic center of Santa Maria Maggiore, it is the only museum in Italy dedicated to this craft. Housed in a building of singular beauty, inside the suggestive park of Villa Antonia, former home of painters and goldsmiths, the museum tells and testifies with an interesting exhibition approach the difficult experience of a figure, unknown to many, who in some centuries he wrote intense pages of a historical-social theme that was decisive for the Vigezzo community. Work uniforms, ancient tools, vintage bicycles, prints, paintings and furnishings, didactic panels, sounds, noises and sensations await you for a journey through time. The Gathering, born in 1982 and organized every year in the first weekend of September by the National Chimney Sweep Association, in addition to being the historical re-enactment of what was the job of the chimney sweep, is one of the most loved and well-known events in Piedmont and represents a consolidated one of the most important tourist events in the Region. The event is divided into three days full of events to get to know each other and share the passion for "smoke and soot".