THINGS TO SEE & DO IN PIEDMONT (PIEMONTE)

Festivals and Events

Piedmont's festivals tend to revolve around the region's two great passions - food and film. Here are a few of them to look out for:

• CioccolaTò (Piedmont) - March
  Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate for three chocolate-caked weeks throughout the region; see www.cioccola-to.com for more
• Carnevale - (February or March)
  Before Lent, towns stage carnivals and enjoy their last fling before Easter
• Burattinarete - May/June
  Puppet theatre takes to the street and stage of Alba, Bra and the Langhe hills
• Douja d'Or, Festival delle Sagre (Asti) - September
  Asti is big on feste (festivals). September's flurry of festivals offers ample wine-tasting opportunities: the 10 day Douja d'Or (a douja beiong a terracotta wine jug unique to Asti) is followed by the one day Delle Sangre food festival on the second Sunday of the month.
• Il Palio di Asti - September
  The Palio, held in the third weekend in September, sees horses race around Piazza Alfieri. On the third Sunday of September, 21 costumed jockeys, from each of the town's historic quarters, gallop bareback around the course set up in Piazza Alfieri. The winner is presented with the Palio, a crimson standard bearing the town's insignia. The race comes at the end of weeks of build-up with entire town quarters banqueting at huge tables set up in the streets. On the big day, the race is preceeded by a big procession of more than 1,200 people, all dressed in medieval garb, through the historic centre
• Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba (National Alba White Truffle Fair; Alba) - October
  The white truffle is celebrated each year with the Fiera del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba (Alba White Truffle Fair), held every Saturday and Sunday for four weeks from early October to early November
• Palio degli Asini - October
  Alba's annual donkey derby

Skiing
Winter sports that can be practised in Piemonte include: alpine and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing, free riding, ski mountaineering, horse trekking, driving sleighs pulled by Siberian huskies, paraskiing, heliskiing and much, much more.
Piemonte features 53 ski resorts, 1,300 kilometres of runs, and over 300 installations comprising aerial tramways, cableways, chair-lifts and ski-lifts, with a capacity of 400,000 people per hour. Well known resorts include Sestriere, Sauze D’oulx and Cervinia.
Piedmont's southern Alps provide plenty of skiing. The main resort is Limone Piemonte (1400m), 26km south of Cuneo in the Valle Vermenagna. Offering up to 80km of pistes, it's the only resort in the Alpi Marittime that's accessible by train and car and as a result can be very busy at weekends in season. For further information on skiing (as well as summer activities) go to www.limonepiemonte.it.
To the southeast of Cuneo, Frabosa Sottana (641m) and Frabosa Soprana (891m) lie in the Valle Maudagna on the slopes of Monte Moro (1739m). Together they consitute a modern ski centre that provides up to 30km of slopes. From here you can connect with the larger and higher Mondolè domain, which centres on the resorts of Artesina (1,300m) and Prato Nevoso (1,500m).
The mountains of Piemonte featured at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics provide a unique backdrop for winter sports. But they also provide peace and quiet for amateurs to have fun, space for beginners, and great cultural and gastronomic traditions.

A bit of culture...
The turreted and castled countryside in the southern area of Piedmont presents a fine example of what art has created, including medieval castles, noble villas, manors and hunting lodges, parks and gardens, forts museums and galleries.
www.castelliaperti.it/welcome_eng.lasso

Hassle free excursions
If you prefer someone else to do the organising, there are a number of excurions available. To name a few:

• Cookery course and tour of Barolo
• Barbaresco tour and trekking
• Barolo tour and trekking
• Alta Langhe Tour and trekking
• Roero tour and trekking
• Mountain bike excursions
• Rafting
• Naturalistic river trip aboard a dinghy
• Horse riding in the Alta Langhe
• Hot air baloon trip
• Horse-drawn carriage excursion

Go to www.turismodoc.it for more information.

Food and wine
Along with wine, food and cooking play a key role in the make-up of the region. Piemonte’s cuisine is heavily influenced by French cooking and uses lots of marinated meats and vegetables, so it comes as no surprise to learn that the increasingly popular Slow Food movement started here, while the white truffles from Alba are considered to be Italy’s best.

Piemonte is considered the best organised region of Italy for wine tourism. Piemonte devotes over one hundred forty thousand acres to grapevines, it ranks 6th among the 20 Italian regions with a total annual wine production of about ninety million gallons, the region produces 44 DOC wines. The best known strictly Italian white varieties are Arneis, Cortese, and Erbaluce. It is the centre for Nebbiolo, felt by many to be Italy’s noblest red variety, the base of Italy’s world famous Barolo and Barbaresco wines. Other Italian red varieties include Barbera, Brachetto, and Dolcetto.

Useful internet resources

Regional Information
Comprehensive sites about the region (most offer an english version!)
- www.piemontefeel.org
- www.regione.piemonte.it
- www.piemonte-emozioni.it
- www.turismodoc.it
- wikipedia.org - piemonte

Weather
Check out today's weather in Piedmont

Estate Agents

If you decide you like the area so much you'd like to invest in a property, speak to Piedmont Property they'll help you every step of the way - our recommendation could not come more highly.

Mountain Biking

If you're an avid rider contact Spinnoff - guided mountain biking. They offer guided mountain biking tours across Europe and could even arrange a bespoke 'experience' just for you!

Self Catering - UK

Looking for self catering accommodation in Lake District, UK? Lindisfarm is a traditional old-fashioned farm, where the livestock is rare-breed and free-range.

Other links

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