From harsh peaks to the charming and romantic atmosphere of the lakes through the hills between the Alps and the great Po Valley, a vis­it to Piedmont is definitely interest­ing and often surprising. A land of great excursions in search of nature, culture, art and history, Piedmont offers a thousand reasons to those wishing to get to know it better. Most certainly special, this area fea­tures aristocratically noble traits vis­ible also on the landscape. Dominated by impressive soaring peaks, for more than a century this region has attracted skiers, indeed in the late 19th century the first "pi­oneers" were performing their maneuvers on rudimental "woods" at Sauze d'Oulx and Bardonecchia. Today, Piedmont's snow and moun­tains provide spectacular settings for both winter tourism and traditional summer holidays. Thanks to the un­usual formation of the Piedmontese valleys, many of the resorts are like balconies overlooking mountain peaks of agonizing beau­ty - Monviso, Gran Paradiso, Monte Rosa, and Argentera - a quality that has been acknowledged, as Piedmont will be staging the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

Piedmont's mountains, however, are not given over entirely to skiing. Foresight and a great love of nature have led to the creation and safe­guarding of nature parks and pro­tected areas that offer silent spots and uncontaminated nature for walks, trekking and horse-riding. There are beautiful hilly landscapes, where Piedmont's noble past is vis­ible in the castles, sanctuaries, abbeys and country churches - and also expressed in vineyards that have, for centuries, created a har­monious geometry and produced many aristocratic wines of great prestige. The region's lakes have always at­tracted an elite tourism and, in the 1800s, started to bring great travelers to Piedmont. The villas and gardens that adorn the shores of Lakes Maggiore and Orta demonstrate the im­portance through the years of these seductive sheets of water.

Also unusual are the so-called "water lands": the provinces of Novara and Vercelli lying on a character­istic plain. With their cascine and farms, green fields, lakes and rice-paddies, distributed in a chequered pattern, they possess all the charm of lands in which man's history, na­ture and work have come togeth­er in an uncommon and refined equilibrium. The history of this territory - one that, with the Savoy dynasty, played such a major role in Italian vicissi­tudes - is visible in all the urban centers. From Italy's first capital, Torino, which despite industrial de­velopment has managed to conserve major expressions of the Risorgimento, to the minor towns and small centers that have conserved their identity skillfully stratify the ar­chitecture of past and present.

Culture and art can be found all over the region: in the abundance of art in the rich Savoy residences, the museums (from the great Egyptian Museum to small collec­tions in the minor ethnographic mu­seums), the castles, the religious Sacro Monte constructions, the abbeys filled with history and works of art, the splendid sanctuaries and small churches and chapels, expressions of popular devotion. Piedmont can boast the conserva­tion of ancient traditions, notably the Palio of Asti and the Carnival of Ivrea, but also commemorations in costume of the history of the Languedocian culture. Passion plays and age-old fairs. In more recent times musical and theatrical events have carved a place for themselves alongside the Automobile Show and the Book Fair. Piedmontese handicrafts are also present on the sweeping perspective offered by this region in the form of skilful and refined woodwork, pot­tery, fabrics and lace, goldsmith, hats and umbrellas. As well as natural beauty, history, art and the draw of traditions and handicrafts, Piedmont offers visi­tors a number of tours on which the regional culture is also expressed in the delights of good food and wine - perhaps richer and more varied here than in any other part of Italy. Piedmont is a region of discreet and elegant charm, stirring timeworn feelings, born in a distant past, which via the present are being carried to­wards the future - pioneer country in which to make delightful jour­neys through nature, culture, art, his­tory and gastronomy.