Piedmont: Hotels and Accommodation

Val Grande National Park protects the largest contiguous wilderness area in the Alps and in Italy. It is a destination for nature lovers and trekking.

Nature

Protected areas in Piedmont cover around 200,000 hectares, or approximately 8 percent of the entire region. Piedmont’s national parks include Gran Paradiso National Park, founded in 1922, and Val Grande National Park, founded in 1992.

The Alta Valsesia and Alta Val Strona Nature Park combines the rich alpine flora typical of high mountain regions with mighty glaciers, extensive coniferous forests, and animals such as ibex, chamois, roe deer, and eagles. Near Alagna, there is a glacier educational trail facing the Monte Rosa Glacier. The route takes about two hours and uses information panels to explain the history of the glaciers in this area.

La Mandria can be explored on foot, by bicycle, on horseback, or by carriage. Among forests, pastures, farmland, numerous farmsteads, protected historic buildings, and a medieval ricetto, visitors can observe deer, wild boar, fallow deer, hares, and badgers.

Culture and History

The Walser, an ancient people of Germanic origin from neighboring Switzerland, settled in Macugnaga and the upper Valsesia in the 13th century and had a major influence on the culture and appearance of these areas.

The Royal Residences of Turin and Piedmont have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 and form an accessible cultural, historical, architectural, and scenic tour. The Sacri Monti continue to be places of Christian pilgrimage, prayer, and reflection.

Turin’s Museo Egizio is the world’s oldest museum dedicated to Egyptian civilization. It offers a journey through more than 4,000 years of history, art, and archaeology.

Wine and Regional Tradition

The wine landscape of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato comprises cultivated hillsides with hilltop villages, castles, Romanesque churches, farmsteads, Infernot cellars, and wine warehouses. The wine landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato in Piedmont preserve wine-growing and winemaking traditions with a long history; the UNESCO wine landscape includes five distinct wine-growing areas.

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

A wine route in the Province of Turin provides access to 25 DOC wines made from 11 distinctive grape varieties. Tastings take place in numerous wineries and agricultural estates, as well as in the two Regional Enotecas of Roppolo and Caluso.

Paths and Routes

The Piedmontese 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.

Bar2Bar is a circular route of approximately 124 kilometers through a large part of the Langhe Roero area. It follows lightly trafficked roads and gravel roads, through forests and along farm tracks.

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

For further regional information, the pages on Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Novara, Alessandria, Province of Biella, Turin, Vercelli, Cuneo, and Asti are available.

For the overview of the wider travel destination: Italy.