From Wikitravel

For other places with the same name, see Piedmont (disambiguation).

Piedmont (Italian: Piemonte) is a region in the north west of Italy, next to the border with France. The main city is Turin, host of the 2006 Winter Olympics Game.

Contents 1 Cities 2 Other destinations 3 Understand 4 Talk 5 Get in 5.1 By plane 5.2 By train 5.3 By car 6 Get around 7 See 8 Do 9 Eat 10 Drink 11 Stay safe 12 Get out

Cities

• Turin (Torino) was the first capital of modern Italy

• Alessandria
• Asti - center of Piedmont wine area
• Biella - a small town with a strong tradition in wool and clothes production
• Cuneo

*Novara 
*Verbania 
*Vercelli

Other destinations

• Alba - a nice small town famous for its truffle fair
• Bra
• Langhe - a countryside area well known for wines and landscape
• Pinerolo
• Saluzzo
• Susa

Understand

Piedmont peolple are probably the most shy in Italy. Their understatement and lack of emotional behaviour is often something that other Italians laugh at. This region has been the industrial heart of Italy since 1800, even though nowadays it's experiencing some economic difficulty connected with deindustrialization.

The Monarchy has left strong heritage across the region, particularly in wide natural parks (former king's haunting reserves) and in XVIII and XIX century buildings.

Talk

A variety of local dialects is still in use in Alps areas as well as in coutryside. Generally expect few over-30-y.o. people to fluently speak English. French is more common. Anyway in major cities you'll probably have very few communication problem since every tourism businesses have arranged solutions in occasion of Winter Olympics.

Get in

By plane

• [Turin]'s Caselle airport [1] is the main airport of Piedmont. It has regular flights with main European hubs and Italian cities operated by major airlines as well as low fares companies.

• The nearest intercontinental hub is Malpensa (Milan's international airport), with direct connections with railways and highways networks.

• An other option is Le Valdigi [Cuneo] airport [2], but has a very limited number of flight and has very few connections other than private car.

By train

• from France directly to Turin from Lyon thru Frejus Tunnel
• from Swiss thru Domodossola

By car

• from France thru Frejus or Mont Blanc Tunnels, Ventimiglia or Tenda Pass
• from Swiss thru Sempione and other minor passes
• from the other parts of Italy by A4 [[Turin] - Trieste, A21 Turin - Piacenza or A6 Turin - Savona highways

Get around

See

Do

Eat

If you can, try the Bollito Misto and Fritto Misto. These are two very traditional dishes and probably you'll be able to find them only in old restaurants far from tourists itinerary. The Bollito Misto is a mix of beef and pork meat boiled with vegetables and eaten with a variety of sauces. The Fritto Misto is a mixture of fryed frogs, vegetables, fishes and meat. Another very typical meal is Bagna Cauda: it consists in a hot garlic sauce to be eaten with raw vegetable.

These are typical restaurants in Torino province:

• Il Frutto Permesso [3]
• Locanda Belfiore [4]

Drink

Piedmont is well known for its great wines, Barolo, Barbaresco, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Arneis, Freisa and others. Most Vineyards are in the area around Asti, Alessandria and Alba, but the passion for strong red wines has spread among the entire territory.

Stay safe

Piedmont is generally a very safe place.

Get out

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