Vignale Monferrato and history

I have been reading a biography of Napoleon and noticed that tomorrow is the 216th anniversary of the Battle of Marengo.   What you are saying is the significance of said battle.  Well, aside from the apocryphal story of the recipe for Chicken Marengo, supposedly created by Napoleon's chef after the battle, the site of the actual military action is not to far from my family's hometown of Vignale Monferrat in the Piedmont region of Italy.  Not much of a connection, but interesting nonetheless.