WI-PIE: Broadband in the High Mountains

valli orco e soana

The ultimate challenge of the regional WI-PIE program is to beat the Digital Divide in the Orco and Soana Valleys. The project is focused on creating a network of cooperation that connects the world of school, of research, of academia in order to test new technology. Thanks to WI-PIE, the areas which are presently excluded from high technology due to geography or the area’s distance are becoming “digital oases” where the demands of all the local players – from citizens to businesses – are easily satisfied. Creating a true “open sky workshop”, the project intends to test out access technology in a real life context, in particular, wireless access.
This is the reason that the Comunita Montana is directly involved, in order to guarantee that any system is replicable and that it functions in any area where the Digital Divide problem exists and to ensure that any environmental impact is practically nonexistent from the moment that the project intends to use an already existing infrastructure.

valli orco e soana

Places

La “Bollente” di Acqui Terme

This is an elegant, octagonal temple-structure inaugurated in 1879. This eclectic structure has a spring where sulfuric-salty-bromine-iodic water flows at a temperature of 74.5 degrees Celsius.

Castello di Mazzè

In the ancient underground parts of the medieval castle is the Museo della Tortura (Museum of Torture): tools and methods from the Holy Inquisition. The building is surrounded by a large park with a scenic view looking out over the Canavese.

Forte di Fenestrelle

The largest fortified structure in Europe and the longest wall-structure in the world after the Great Wall of China: a 635-meter inclination, 3 km long, 1,300,000 square meters large, 4,000 steps in the Scala Coperta (Covered Staircase), 2,500 steps in the Scala Reale (Royal Staircase), 5 drawbridges, and 183 lights to illuminate the interior.

People

Mario Brunello

“Torino has a special karma when it comes to music. The audience here in Torino takes a little more time to decide compared to others. It seems like they are waiting, as if they don’t want to invade the field. This is because they treat artists like people, not like celebrities. They make you feel important because of what you have to say with finesse. This is a very courteous way to make you feel at home.”

Alessandro Del Piero

"Torino is the city where I arrived at 18 and where I became a man, where I bought my house and fit it to suit me over the years, where the friends I see live, the city where my wife was born."

Alessandro Baricco

"Torino is a place where, in general, things are done with great seriousness and exactness. Even living and dying."

WI-PIE: Broadband in the High Mountains - Piemonte Feel