Piedmont: Holiday apartments and holiday homes

Nature and high mountains

Protected areas in Piedmont cover around 200,000 hectares and account for about 8 percent of the entire region. Piedmont’s national parks include Gran Paradiso National Park, which was established in 1922. Val Grande National Park is also one of Piedmont’s national parks; it was established in 1992. It preserves the largest contiguous wilderness area in the Alps and Italy and is a destination for nature lovers and trekking.

The Alta Valsesia and Alta Val Strona Nature Park combines the rich alpine flora typical of high-mountain regions with mighty glaciers and extensive coniferous forests. Ibex, chamois, roe deer and eagles are among the animals that live in this landscape. Near Alagna, the glacier educational trail lies opposite the Monte Rosa Glacier. The route takes around two hours and uses information boards to explain the history of the glaciers in this area.

The history of the Walser people is also part of the character of Piedmont’s mountain regions. The Walser, an ancient people of Germanic origin from neighbouring Switzerland, settled in Macugnaga and the upper Valsesia in the 13th century. They had a major influence on the culture and character of these areas.

Culture and history

In Turin and Piedmont, the Royal Residences have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. At the same time, they form an accessible cultural, historical, architectural and scenic tour. The Sacri Monti offer a different focus: they continue to be places of Christian pilgrimage, prayer and contemplation. The Piedmont section of the Devoto Cammino dei Sacri Monti begins at Sacro Monte Calvario di Domodossola and leads via Sacro Monte di Varallo, Oropa, Belmonte, Crea, Orta and Ghiffa.

With the Museo Egizio, Turin preserves a unique place in cultural history. It is the oldest museum in the world dedicated to Egyptian civilisation and offers a journey through more than 4,000 years of history, art and archaeology.

La Mandria combines natural surroundings with traces of history. The area can be explored on foot, by bicycle, on horseback or by carriage. Among forests, pastures, agricultural land, numerous farms, protected historic buildings and a medieval ricetto, visitors can observe deer, wild boar, fallow deer, hares and badgers.

Wine landscapes and regional specialities

The wine landscape of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato includes cultivated slopes with hilltop villages, castles, Romanesque churches, farms, Infernot cellars and wine stores. The wine landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato in Piedmont preserve winegrowing and winemaking traditions with a long history. As a UNESCO wine landscape, this area comprises five distinct wine-growing regions.

Infernot are old cellars carved by hand into tuff in Monferrato. Between Nizza Monferrato and Canelli, visitors can discover the regional specialities for which these places are known: Barbera and Asti Spumante, respectively.

A wine-route circuit in the Province of Turin provides access to 25 DOC wines made from 11 characteristic grape varieties. Tastings take place in numerous wineries and farms, as well as in the two Regional Wine Shops of Roppolo and Caluso.

Routes through the landscape and region

The approximately 124-kilometre Bar2Bar circuit leads through a large part of the Langhe Roero area. The route follows lightly trafficked roads and gravel roads, through forests and along farm tracks.

A cycling route in Piedmont stretches for around 95 kilometres. It begins in Carema and runs via Ivrea, Santhià and Vercelli towards Vinzaglio. Another cycling route, approximately 446 kilometres long, begins in Dormelletto in the Novara area, touches the mountain regions via Biella and Ivrea, and runs along the access routes to Piedmont’s valleys.

Other subregions

Other subregions of Piedmont are Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Novara, Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Turin, Vercelli and Cuneo.

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