Location: Piemonte is the second largest of the 20 regions of Italy. It is located on the northwest side of the country. On its borders are Liguria to the south, Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest. Piemonte also borders Switzerland to the north and France on  the west.

Having  a population of 4,251,868, it is the 7th-most populous region of Italy as of 2025.  Torino (Turin) is its capital city, also being the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865.

Climate: Piemonte has a temperate climate becoming progressively  colder and colder as one goes up in altitude.  Winters are seasonally cold and not very rainy; and frequently sunny with possible snowfall, sometimes significant snowfall. In the northeast areas, snow is occasional.  In the summer it is usually hot with the possibility of strong thunderstorms.

Geography:  Piemonte is bordered on three sides by the Alps, including Monviso at the mouth of the Po River, and Monte Rosa.  On its borders are France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardia, Liguria and Emilia Romagna, as well as the Aosta Valley.  The geography is 43.3% mountainous, with hills for 30.3%, and plains for 26.4%.  The landscape is quite diverse including the rugged peaks of Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso to the rice paddies of Vercelli and Novarra, as wells as the sloping hills of Langhe, Roero and Montferrat to the flat plains. There are many national or regional parks (56). The most famous is Gran Paradiso National Park between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.

History:

Deriving from the original Latin, Piemonte in Italian, means “at the foot of the mountains”, i.e. the Alps. Inhabited in early historic times , the tribes of Taurini and Salassi were conquered by the Romans around 220BC. The Piemonte was invaded by many other tribes including the Lombards and the Franks. After many rulers, Piemonte was a springboard for the unification of Italy in 1859-61 and after that unification, Piemonte became one of the most important regions in the industrialization of Italy.

Culture:

Language: Of course, Italian is spoken in Piemonte as in the rest of Italy, but but there are also local languages the dialects of Piemontese, Insubric which are spoken in the eastern part of the province, as well as Occitan in the Occitan Valley and in Torino.

Cuisine: Piemontese cuisine mirrors  the style of cooking in Northern Italy.  Because Piemonte borders France and Switzerland, Piedmontese cuisine is influenced by French cuisine. We see this in the importance placed on appetizers, as in France.

Piemonte  is the region in Italy with the largest number of cheeses and wines. It is home to the most prestigious Italian culinary school called  the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Like other Northern Italian cuisines, veal, wine, and butter are used extensively in cooking. Some of the most popular dishes in Piemonte are agnolotti, vitello tonnato and bagna cauda.  Tagliolini, an egg pasta made by hand originated in Piemonte and was the preferred dish of King Victor Emmanuel.

These are only of the few delights discovered in Piemonte!