Torino - Piemonte Feel

[Indietro]

---

[Indietro]

---

Provincia di Torino

You have to go back in time, to the year 100, in order to find traces of the pilgrims who came down from the north to reach the holy places of Christianity - Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and Jerusalem. The pilgrims to Rome were following the so-called Via Francigena. They would enter Italy from the Valle d’Aosta, then go south through the Canavese or Susa valleys, where important vestiges of these faith-driven travellers are still to be seen. The Susa valley, great “white container” along the arc of the Alps, has recently been equipped with the latest modern sports facilities built for the XX Winter Olympics, but it merits an off-season visit to the sites of its important historical and artistic heritage. The Sacra di San Michele is the symbol of Piedmont. This thousand-year-old monastery was built at the summit of Mount Pirchiriano, dominating Turin’s entrance to the valley. There is a very important Romanesque-Gothic church complex at Sant’Antonio di Ranverso. Novelese Abbey was one of the most important religious and cultural institutions of the Middle Age. Some claim that it was Umberto Eco’s model for the monastery in The Name of the Rose. It was at Chiuse di Susa that Charlemagne forced his way into Italy and defeated the Lombard Prince Adelchi, as Alessando Manzoni described in one of his famous tragedies. The Cavanese area’s countryside is dominated by the 25-kilometre-long Serra d’Ivrea, the longest and most evocative morainic hill in Europe. This area has been made particularly spectacular by its concentration of medieval castles, towers, and shelters, which crown its five splendid Alpine lakes. Each year the city of Ivrea celebrates its famous carnival “of the red towers,” whose leading figures are not the usual carnival characters, but symbolic characters in a battle for freedom that climaxes in the “battle of the oranges,” in which everyone can participate. The Lanzo valley, another one of the valleys that frame the city of Turin, is rich in forests and natural parks. It is a “magic” valley. Here, according to a medieval legend, a stone bridge over the Stura River was built in one night by the devil in person in exchange for the soul of the first living being that crossed the bridge. However, a clever mountain peasant got the better of the devil when he had a goat pass over first. The Pellice valley, a Waldensian cultural centre, features guided trips to its historical talcum mines in the Prali area. The Chisone valley is dominated by the roughly three-kilometre-long Finestrelle Fortress, the biggest fortified structure in Europe, which follows the ridge of Mount Orsiera from 1130 to 1763 metres in height. Its highly-complex architecture still impresses visitors today.

Information
Turismo Torino e Provincia

[Indietro]

---

[Indietro]

---

[Indietro]

---

[Indietro]

---