"Food lovers paradise" Top 5 Page for this destination Piemonte by iris2002

This is a food lover's paradise, so that means there's something here for everyone!

Occupying a large area that borders on France and Switzerland, Piedmont is the ancient dominion of the Savoys, the ill-fated royal family who ruled Italy from the Unification in 1870 until abdication in 1946.

But Piedmont is a world unto itself. Perhaps it was the thick fogs that often shroud its world-class vineyards - even giving their name, nebbiolo, to the region's premier grape - that cut it off from the rest of the peninsula.

Certainly we can say that of the Alps, which loom so magnificently on the eastern and northern borders. Add to that the region's hopelessly picturesque lakes and hills (of which there are far more per square mile than in Tuscany), and you get a people who long ago learned to rely on their own small community for everything.

The Via Francigena is a historical itinerary leading to Rome from Canterbury, a major route used by thousands of northern European pilgrims on their way to Rome. At the beginning of the 11th century mainly, a multitude of souls "looking for their Lost Heavenly Home" began to travel across Europe. This route bears witness to the importance of the practice of pilgrimage in medieval times; the pilgrim was to travel mostly on foot (for penitential reasons), covering about 20-25 Km a day, and was driven by a fundamentally devotional reason: the pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Christianity. There were at the time three main centers of devotion: Rome, first of all, the site of the martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Santiago de Compostela, the place chosen by the apostle Saint James to rest in peace and, obviously, Jerusalem in the Holy Land. The pilgrim did not travel alone but in a group, and he carried the pilgrimage emblems (the shell for Santiago de Compostela, the cross for Jerusalem and the key for Saint Peter in Rome). Along these very same pilgrim routes, an intense trading activity was carried out and armies followed the same itineraries in the course of their movements.

In Piedmont, the Susa Valley section of the "Via Francigena," from Turin to Lyons via Moncenisio, is a segment of one of the many "Via Francigena" itineraries that crossed the Alps during the Middle Ages. It does not correspond to the modern concept of road but probably consisted of a set of parallel paths along the floor of the valley, more or less numerous according to the width of the area crossed.

Each wayfarer, whether pilgrim, merchant, prince, peasant or clergyman, plotted his own itinerary, setting his sights case by case on specific objectives and modifying his route according to practical needs. Places of worship, market towns, obligatory points of transit and tollage, monasteries, "hospitals" and places to stay had to be established beforehand as essential reference points during the journey. Along the route, which could also be of medium or short range, that is to say designed for an intermediate destination, the pilgrim encountered widely or only locally renowned places of worship. In most cases, the main directive of his route offered many occasions for intersecting other religious routes. The most distant destination of the Holy Sepulchre could be accompanied by one dedicated to the worship of St Michael (Sacra) or St John Vincent (S. Ambrogio, Celle), alongside and in addition to stages dedicated to prayer (chapels), to the care of souls (priories and parishes) and specialized assistance, proposed by an effective system of hospices (Moncenisio and Ranverso), monasteries (Novalesa, St Justus of Susa) and Charterhouses (Montebenedetto and Banda).

This firmly-entrenched and now more than 1000-year-old system is wisely distributed and closely interconnected with the dense, parallel and complementary network of lay noble presence, an expression of more or less vast and authoritative territorial power (castles, fortresses, redoubts).

http://www.italian-connection.com/pvl.html

Piedmont is rich in gastronomic traditions, home to great Barolo wines and pungent cheeses, yet with a natural beauty and lush countryside that is ideal for exploring on foot.

Walking in a landscape of perfectly ordered vineyards and hazy rolling hills will wet your appetite and further the path goes towards romantic lakes and tiny cobblestoned villages, sampling the very best of this intriguing area.

The early autumn is the best season to experience Piedmont, when Italy?s prestigious Truffle Fair takes place, and the finest white truffles adorn our meals.

• Pros:Wonderful for all ages
• Cons:can't think of any
• In a nutshell:Piedmont is an italian gourmet heaven with alpine flair