Piedmont: Royal Residences, Alpine Valleys & the Kingdom of Barolo

The first place I worked in Italy was Biella, in the foothills of the Piedmontese Alps. I was younger then, fresh from business school, still learning the particular rhythm of life in the northern provinces. Nearly thirty years later, Gigia and I passed through on our way back from San Remo — a quick stopover, nothing more. It took us four more years to return properly.

Piedmont, one of northern Italy’s most elegant and underrated regions, rewards the patient.

A landscape of royal hunting lodges, vineyard-covered hills, alpine valleys, and slow rivers — somehow less crowded than Tuscany, less frantic than the coast, and more deeply itself than almost anywhere else in the north.

The initiated keep quiet about it, and for good reason.

Why Piedmont Is One of Italy’s Most Underrated Regions

Unlike many of Italy’s more famous destinations, Piedmont still feels remarkably authentic.

Travel here unfolds more slowly:

• vineyard roads instead of tourist queues
• mountain villages instead of resort crowds
• family-run trattorias instead of polished tourist menus

It is a region built for slow travel — for lingering over wine, walking historic streets, and discovering places that feel lived in rather than staged.

For travelers seeking a quieter and more sophisticated side of northern Italy, Piedmont offers one of the country’s richest experiences.

Royal Residences of the House of Savoy

The royal residences of the Savoy dynasty are scattered across Piedmont like a family album of power and ambition.

The Venaria Reale alone rivals Versailles:

• grand galleries
• baroque gardens
• sweeping ceremonial halls
• and elaborate hunting grounds once used by the royal court

Throughout the region, palaces, castles, and aristocratic villas reveal the political importance Piedmont once held as the heart of the Savoy kingdom and the birthplace of modern Italy. For more information, visit the UNESCO Savoy Residences page.

And according to Gigia, many of the palace walls remain highly climbable.

The Langhe, Roero & Monferrato Wine Hills

The UNESCO-listed vineyard landscapes of Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato form one of the world’s great wine regions.

These hills produce:

• Barolo
• Barbaresco
• Barbera
• Nebbiolo
• and generations of fiercely protected winemaking tradition

The same families have cultivated these slopes for centuries, ageing wines in cool stone cellars and maintaining a continuity that feels increasingly rare in modern Europe.

In autumn, Alba fills with the unmistakable scent of the White Truffle Fair, where truffle hunters emerge from the woods carrying knobbly treasures destined for fresh tajarin pasta and candlelit trattorias.

For wine touring, explore the Barolo wine consortium, Barbaresco wine consortium, and Barolo Wine Road.

Alpine Valleys & Mountain Villages

Beyond the vineyards, Piedmont stretches upward into the Cottian and Graian Alps.

Here, the landscape changes dramatically:

• stone villages
• pine forests
• mountain rifugi
• waterfalls and alpine trails
• and quiet valleys reaching toward the French border

The air smells of woodsmoke and pine resin. Silence settles naturally across the mountains, interrupted only by distant cowbells, rivers, and the occasional disapproving flick of a cat’s tail.

Compared to the Dolomites further east, these alpine valleys remain wonderfully understated.

For Gigia, they provided ideal conditions for high-altitude territorial supervision.

Lake Maggiore & the Borromean Islands

Lake Maggiore completes the Piedmont landscape with a more aristocratic elegance.

Its famous Borromean Islands rise from the water like scenes from a Renaissance painting:

• Isola Bella with its terraced gardens
• Isola Madre with roaming peacocks
• Isola dei Pescatori with fishermen’s trattorias and lakeside promenades

The atmosphere feels polished yet surprisingly relaxed — especially for travelers arriving by ferry with a feline companion. For more information, visit Stresa tourism.

Gigia inspected the lake with great seriousness and concluded that moving water is acceptable provided sufficient lounging opportunities exist nearby.

Turin: Italy’s Elegant First Capital

All of which brings us, eventually, to Turin — Italy’s first capital and one of Europe’s most refined urban centers.

Elegant arcades stretch for nearly eighteen kilometres across the city, connecting royal palaces, historic cafés, bookshops, markets, and grand piazzas beneath the shadow of the Mole Antonelliana.

Turin is home to:

• the Egyptian Museum
• the Shroud of Turin
• the Salone Internazionale del Libro
• and one of Italy’s most sophisticated café cultures

It is also, somewhat unexpectedly, an extremely cat-tolerant city. Visit the Royal Palace of Turin for more royal history.

And it was here that Gigia discovered the talent she had truly been refining all along was not acrobatics, nor charm, nor even strategic slow blinking.

It was fame.

Traveling Piedmont with a Cat

Piedmont works exceptionally well for slower cat-friendly travel because it combines:

• walkable historic towns
• lower tourist density
• quiet countryside accommodation
• mountain villages
• and relaxed food culture

Compared to faster-paced Italian destinations, the region offers:

• more flexibility
• less noise
• and easier routines for traveling animals

From vineyard agriturismi to alpine villages and lakeside ferries, Piedmont consistently proved calmer and more adaptable than many travelers expect. For more advice, see our guide to traveling Italy with a cat.

Why Visit Piedmont

Piedmont is ideal for travelers interested in:

• wine tourism
• historic towns
• slow travel
• royal history
• mountain landscapes
• and authentic northern Italian culture

It offers the elegance of Tuscany with fewer crowds, the food culture of Emilia-Romagna with stronger alpine influences, and some of Italy’s most rewarding wine regions.

Above all, Piedmont still feels lived in.

Not curated.
Not performative.
Simply itself.