Four thousand six hundred metres, and the Po starts here

The Piedmontese Alps run from the Ligurian border to the Simplon and close the region on two sides. There are four groups with different characters: the Maritime Alps above Cuneo, within sight of the sea; the Cottian Alps with Monviso; the Graian Alps with Gran Paradiso; and the Pennine Alps with Monte Rosa, which on the Piedmontese side reaches 4,609 metres at Punta Nordend.

Where the Po rises

Monviso, 3,841 metres, is an isolated pyramid visible from the whole plain, which the Romans called Vesulus. At its foot, at Pian del Re at 2,020 metres, is the source of the Po: a pool a few metres across from which the longest river in Italy sets out. You drive up from Crissolo, and the last stretch is narrow.

The parks

Gran Paradiso is Italy's first national park, from 1922, and Piedmont holds its southern half, with the Valle Orco and the Val Soana. The Nivolet road climbs to 2,612 metres between the lakes and in summer is closed to cars at weekends. The Val Grande, above Lake Maggiore, is instead the largest wilderness area in Italy: no roads, no villages, and paths that call for experience.

The hills

Between the Po and the Apennines lie the Langhe, the Roero and the Monferrato: hills of marl and sandstone covered in vines, with a village on top of every rise. Since 2014 they have been Unesco heritage as a wine-growing landscape, which does not often happen to farmland still in production.

The water

Besides the Po, which crosses the region from west to east, there are the lakes: Maggiore, of which Piedmont holds the western shore, Orta with its island, and the smaller Mergozzo, Viverone, Candia and Avigliana. Between Vercelli and Novara the rice fields cover a hundred thousand hectares and produce about half of Italy's rice.

The climate

The plain has cold foggy winters and hot muggy summers: it is the most markedly continental climate in Italy. On the lakes things change completely, because the water moderates the temperature in both seasons, and in the mountains the Piedmontese side of the Alps is drier than the Lombard one. For campers that means July and August on the plain are heavy going, while on the lake you nearly always sleep well.