Vercelli is a city and comune of 46,552 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 600 BC. The city is situated on the Sesia River in the plain of the Po River 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.