Hikes in Piedmont
A few posts ago I told you what made Italy, for us, the perfect travel destination: that wherever you go, no matter how unfancy the place may seem, you will find something beautiful and interesting. Last week, we decided to put that to the test. The county of Southern Piemonte is one of Italy’s forgotten…
Travelling through Europe means crossing mountains and border lines, lines that have – for whatever reason – survived the medieval warlords who drew them in the sand centuries ago, but also rivers and mountains that, once almost insurmountable, have continued to divide tribes and nations for thousands of years. Borders such as the mountain range…
Why it may be a good idea to call on local assistance for your trips around the Ossola Valley For our final walk in the Ossola valley, we hiked a small piece of the Via dei torchi e dei mulini – the “trail of wine presses and mills”. The Via Tappia Trail of Wine Presses We started…
Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 15 sculpted stations of the cross on the Sacred Mountain of Domodossola provide a fascinating experience, even in the rain – or, perhaps, particularly so One thing you have to say for the Alps, they don’t do much by halves there. Europe’s highest mountain range has proper…
How to brighten up a cold, wet and miserable day in the Italian Alps. In the unlikely event that an extraterrestrial were to land in front of my house, driven by the need to find out what earthlings found so recreational by walking from one place to another and demanding the briefest possible explanation of…
An expedition down the Toce river reveals that the Orridi di Uriezzo are actually quite beautiful One of the main forces that have shaped the landscape of the Ossola valleys is water. During the last ice age, all valleys – main valley and seven side valleys – were covered by approx. 1 km of ice…
D is for Domodossola This week, we are off for a few days of hiking in the northern Italian Ossola Valley (near the Swiss border), but before we put on our boots for the more “serious stuff”, we went for a brief walk through the town of Domodossola, our base for the duration of our stay….
The Piemontese hills may provide a picturesque backdrop, but it is in the flat countryside where the city’s lifeblood flows To the casual observer, it may seem that the countryside in and around Turin is mainly Alpine in nature. The Alps indeed seem to be everywhere … … but while they undoubtedly attract the eye,…
Meet two of modern Italy’s founding fathers, a two-faced royal mansion and the world’s tallest museum In addition to the San Michele hike from our last post, we have prepared two more tours in Turin for you: one “town” walk and one “country” walk, both of them relatively short (with lengths of two to three…
The Sacra di San Michele near Turin is Northern Italy’s grandest and most sacred abbey. Italy’s industrial heartland lies within a triangle formed by Genoa, Milan and Torino, but, this being Italy, these three great industrial towns are hardly the equivalent of Dortmund, Manchester or Cleveland and pack a powerful “triple punch” of beautiful architecture,…
