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Piedmont

Learn about Piedmont

Introduction

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Piedmont means "at the foot of the mountains", and the name is the geography: the Alps enclose the region on three sides, and everything inside them drains toward the Po, which rises here. It is Italy's second-largest region and one of its least crowded by visitors, despite holding the country's first capital and its most prized wines.

Turin is the anchor — a planned Baroque city of arcaded streets that was the seat of the House of Savoy, the capital of united Italy from 1861 to 1865, and afterwards the company town that FIAT built. South of it the Langhe and Monferrato hills produce Barolo, Barbaresco and the white truffle of Alba.

The region rewards slow travel more than a checklist. Its pleasures are a long lunch, a cellar visit, a Baroque hunting palace on the edge of the city, and the particular quiet of hills that are farmed rather than staged.

Geography

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The Alps enclose Piedmont on three sides and the Po rises inside them, which is the whole of the region's geography: high mountains, a broad rice-growing plain, and a belt of vineyard hills between the two.

Read the full Geography guide →

History

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Piedmont was ruled for eight centuries by one family, the House of Savoy, whose ambitions ended with them ruling Italy. Turin was the first capital of the united kingdom — then lost the role within four years and rebuilt itself around industry.

Read the full History guide →

Culture

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Piedmont's culture is formal, understated and unusually intellectual — a Savoy court legacy. It produced the Slow Food movement, Italy's first capital, and a café tradition that treats chocolate as seriously as coffee.

Read the full Culture guide →

Climate Patterns

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A continental climate sheltered from the sea by mountains: cold, foggy winters, hot and humid summers on the plain, and a genuine alpine regime above about 1,000 m.

Read the full Climate Patterns guide →

Food & Traditional Cuisine

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Piedmont cooks richly and slowly — butter, veal, eggs and cheese rather than olive oil and tomato — and it is the one Italian region where the wine, the truffle and the cooking were shaped together by the same hills.

Read the full Food & Traditional Cuisine guide →

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