Piedmont (outside Turin) Attractions Piemonte (around Torino)

The region takes in six provinces with Turin as its capital.EconomyThe geographical diversity of the region is reflected in different economic patterns. The upland area round Turin, Ivrea and Biella, with good communications and adequate energy supplies (hydro-electric power from the mountains, natural gas in the Po plain, oil from Genoa), is one of the most progressive industrial areas in Italy. The main elements in a very varied range of industries are metal-working, the manufacture of machinery and cars, the textile industry which developed out of the famous silk-manufacturing industry of earlier days, leather goods and foodstuffs. Agriculture is still predominant on the fertile alluvial soil of the Po valley, where fruit-growing, arable farming (wheat, maize, rice, fodder crops) and cattle-rearing achieve high yields through the application of modern methods. Vine-growing is important, particularly in the Monferrato. White truffles - the finest and most expensive form of this delicacy - are found in the Alba area. In the hill regions tourism has developed rapidly in recent years, supplementing the traditional pastoral farming and the relatively unproductive mining (lead, zinc, copper, coal).HistoryOriginally occupied by a number of different peoples, Piedmont ("foot of the mountain") was Romanised in the time of Augustus. After the fall of the Roman Empire it was held successively by the Lombards (Langobardi) and the Franks. It was devastated by the Magyars in 899 (massacre of Vercelli) and later by the Saracens. Thereafter it split up into a patchwork of coun- ties, duchies and marquisates, the most important of which in the 10th century were Ivrea and Turin, joined by Saluzzo and Monferrato in the 12th century. In the 11th century most of the present-day Piedmont passed to the house of Savoy (French Pieàmont) as a result of a dynastic marriage; and the territory became in the 13th century the county, and in 1416 the duchy, of Piedmont. Thereafter it was disputed between the Habsburgs and France, owing its importance and the vicissitudes of its subsequent history largely to its control of the western Alpine passes (the Great and Little St Bernard). In 1720 Piedmont acquired Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, and as the kingdom of Sardinia played a leading part in the unification of Italy. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II (1849-78), son of the last king of Sardinia, became king of Italy, with Turin, the old Piedmontese capital, as capital of the new kingdom until 1865.The most attractive tourist areas in Piedmont are to be found in the mountains - the Graian, Cottian and Ligurian Alps - and around Lake Maggiore, all of them of great scenic beauty.