Bobbio in the context of Monastery of Bobbio

The piffero (Italian: [ˈpiffero]) or piffaro is a double-reed musical instrument of the oboe family with a conical bore (Sachs-Hornbostel category 422.112).It is used to play music in the tradition of the Quattro Province (it), an area of mountains and valleys in the north-west Italian Apennines which includes parts of the four provinces of Alessandria, Genoa, Piacenza and Pavia. It is also played throughout Southern Italy with different fingering styles dictated by local tradition.

The instrument is a descendant of the Medieval shawm and belongs to the family of the bombarde.

Bobbio Abbey (Italian: Abbazia di San Colombano) is a monastery founded by Irish Saint Columbanus in 614, around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Columbanus. It was famous as a centre of resistance to Arianism and as one of the greatest libraries in the Middle Ages. The abbey was dissolved under the French administration in 1803, although many of the buildings remain in other uses.