Where to stay in Piedmont
The name states the geography: at the foot of the mountains. The Alps close the region on three sides and the valleys running down from them — Val di Susa, Val d’Ossola, Valsesia — have historically served as corridors towards France and Switzerland. Eastwards the land falls away into hills and then into the rice-growing plain. Piedmont counts five UNESCO sites, the first dating from 1997, along with three intangible heritage listings including mountaineering, inscribed in 2019, and the art of dry-stone walling, the mortarless building technique that made the slopes of the hills and valleys cultivable.
Turin and the Savoy residences
The House of Savoy ruled these lands from around the year 1000 and made Turin the capital of their duchy and later kingdom. Around the city they built a system of residences — the Stupinigi hunting lodge, the Venaria Reale, Rivoli Castle, Racconigi — which in 1997 was inscribed on the UNESCO list as a group of twenty-two monuments across the provinces of Turin and Cuneo: a complete survey of European court architecture between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Turin is also a UNESCO Creative City for design, and holds within the Mole Antonelliana the national cinema museum, as well as one of the world’s foremost Egyptian collections.
The wine hills
Since 2014 the vineyard landscapes of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato have been World Heritage: more than ten thousand hectares of hills where vines alternate with woods and fortified villages. This is the land of Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera, as well as the white truffle of Alba — itself a Creative City for gastronomy. Asti and Alessandria are the urban reference points of the area, while Cuneo opens towards the Occitan valleys, where a form of Occitan is still spoken. The hills are dotted with castles and villages that have stayed compact, and much of the accommodation occupies restored farmsteads among the vines: it is the commonest formula across the whole area.
The lakes and the Sacred Mountains
In the north of the region lie Lake Maggiore, with Verbania and the Borromean Islands, and the more contained Lake Orta with the island of San Giulio. On these heights stand seven of the nine Sacred Mountains recognised by UNESCO in 2003 — Varallo, Orta, Ghiffa, Domodossola, Oropa, Crea and Belmonte — devotional complexes built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as routes of frescoed chapels. By Lake Viverone and at Mercurago lie two Bronze Age pile-dwelling sites.
The mountains
The Alpine valleys offer both large ski areas and smaller resorts. The Val di Susa holds the lifts that served the 2006 Olympics; Limone Piemonte, in the Cuneo area, is one of the historic resorts of the western Alps; Alagna Valsesia, at the foot of Monte Rosa, is known among off-piste skiers and for its Walser culture. To the north, the Val d’Ossola gathers seven valleys climbing to the Swiss border.
The plain and the smaller cities
Between Vercelli and Novara stretches Europe’s largest rice-growing area, a landscape of water that in spring, when the paddies are flooded, turns into an expanse of mirrors reflecting the sky and the Alps. Vercelli preserves the basilica of Sant’Andrea, among Italy’s earliest Gothic buildings; Novara is crowned by Alessandro Antonelli’s dome; Biella, a Creative City for crafts, is tied to the wool trade; Mondovì combines a hilltop old town with a funicular linking it to the lower part. At Ivrea, finally, the Olivetti industrial complex has been a UNESCO site since 2018.
Getting around and when to go
Turin is the main rail hub and connects almost the whole region in under two hours; the hills and valleys are better explored by car. Spring and autumn suit the wine country and the cities best, with the grape harvest and truffle season bringing the peak in the Langhe between September and November; winter belongs to the valleys. Details on connections in how to get to Piedmont and a full overview in where to stay in Piedmont.
