The monuments
All the monuments, city by city
The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.
IvreaUNESCOIvrea, industrial city of the 20th centuryOlivetti; twentieth-century industrial architecture; administration and social-service buildings; housing; Movimento ComunitàIvrea, industrial city of the 20th century is the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble developed as Olivetti's industrial and socio-cultural project. Its factories, administration and social-service buildings, and housing are chiefly twentieth-century architecture shaped by the relationship between production, design and community. The precisely bounded property crosses the municipalities of Ivrea and Banchette.Plan the visit
TurinEgyptian MuseumOldest Egyptian museum, tomb of Kha intact, statue gallery of kings, papyrus collectionTurin has collected Egypt since 1824, longer than any museum on earth, and only Cairo holds more. The intact tomb kit of the architect Kha and the shadowy statue gallery of pharaohs justify a full day.
TurinMole AntonellianaTurin's 167-meter spire, National Cinema Museum, glass elevator, synagogue that outgrew itselfBegun as a synagogue and finished as the world's tallest masonry building, the Mole became Turin's emblem. A glass elevator rises through the Cinema Museum's void to a balcony level with the Alps.
TurinTurin CathedralHome of the Holy Shroud, Renaissance facade, rare public exhibitions, Roman theatre remains besideTurin's only Renaissance church keeps the city's most disputed treasure, the Shroud, in a side chapel most of the time sealed. Its rare public exhibitions still draw millions to this quiet white facade.
TurinBasilica of SupergaJuvarra's hilltop dome, Savoy royal tombs, rack tramway ascent, Grande Torino memorialJuvarra set this domed basilica on Superga's summit to honor a vow made during the 1706 siege, and the Savoys chose its crypt for their tombs. The hill is also sacred to football, where the Grande Torino team perished in 1949.
TurinUNESCORoyal Palace of TurinSavoy seat of power, Royal Armoury, Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Royal GardensThe Savoys ruled from this palace for three centuries and filled it with one of Europe's great armouries. Guarini's spiraling Chapel of the Holy Shroud, restored after its 1997 fire, reopens directly off the gallery.
StresaIsola BellaBorromeo palace island, ten-terraced Baroque garden, white peacocks, Lake Maggiore showpieceThe Borromeo family spent four centuries turning a fishing rock into a galleon of gardens, ten terraces rising from Lake Maggiore. White peacocks patrol the parterres beneath the palace where Napoleon once slept.
Sant'Ambrogio di TorinoSacra di San MicheleAbbey on Mount Pirchiriano, Stairway of the Dead, symbol of Piedmont, Umberto Eco inspirationBenedictine monks balanced this abbey on the peak of Mount Pirchiriano a thousand years ago, and the climb through the rock-cut Stairway of the Dead still feels like a pilgrimage. Umberto Eco borrowed its silhouette for The Name of the Rose, and Piedmont has made it the region's official symbol.
BaroloUNESCOLanghe VineyardsBarolo and Barbaresco crus, hazelnut groves, hilltop castles, autumn fog and trufflesThe Langhe roll Nebbiolo vines over hill after hill, each crowned by a castle and named on a wine label. Autumn brings fog, truffles and the harvest, the season the region was made for.
TurinUNESCOPalazzo MadamaRoman gate to Baroque facade, Juvarra's staircase, Civic Museum of Ancient Art, two royal madamsPalazzo Madama is Turin's history in section: a Roman gate, a medieval castle and Juvarra's Baroque facade share one building. Inside, the civic collection runs from Gothic ivories to Antonello da Messina's unforgettable portrait.
Venaria RealeUNESCORoyal Palace of VenariaJuvarra's Great Gallery, Sant'Uberto chapel, restored Savoy gardens, UNESCO Savoy residenceCarlo Emanuele II's hunting palace outside Turin grew into one of Europe's grandest courts, closer in scale to Versailles than to a lodge. Filippo Juvarra's luminous Great Gallery and the replanted gardens anchor the restoration that returned the Reggia to life in 2007.
Orta San GiulioIsola San GiulioIsland basilica of San Giulio, way of silence path, Benedictine nuns, Lake Orta stillnessA Romanesque basilica and a closed Benedictine convent share the islet that fills Lake Orta's center. The single lane circling it is signposted as the Way of Silence, and the island enforces the suggestion.
VaralloUNESCOSacro Monte di VaralloNew Jerusalem of 1491, forty-five chapels, Gaudenzio Ferrari figures, oldest sacred mountainThe first and greatest of the sacred mountains rebuilt Jerusalem above Varallo in forty-five chapels. Gaudenzio Ferrari's painted crowds and terracotta figures merge into single scenes that stunned pilgrims five centuries before cinema.
AstiAsti CathedralPiedmont's grandest Gothic, frescoed interior complete, Romanesque campanile, red-brick bulkAsti raised the largest Gothic church in Piedmont, plain brick outside and entirely frescoed within. Every column and vault carries paint, an eighteenth-century commission that left no surface quiet.
Orta San GiulioUNESCOSacro Monte di OrtaTwenty chapels of Saint Francis, terracotta figure tableaux, lake-view woodland path, devotional mountainTwenty chapels climb the wooded hill above Orta, their life-size terracotta figures acting out Saint Francis's story. The path between them keeps opening onto Lake Orta and the island of San Giulio below.
IvreaHidden GemMasino CastleA hilltop castle in Caravino documented as far back as 1070 with an imposing keep, owned and opened to the public by FAI, one of the lesser-known castles of the Canavese.
Sant'Ambrogio di TorinoHidden GemSant'Antonio di Ranverso AbbeyA Romanesque-Gothic monastery founded in 1188 near Turin, owned by the Ordine Mauriziano and holding early-15th-century frescoes by Giacomo Jaquerio considered masterworks of the late-Gothic Piedmontese school.
TurinHidden GemVezzolano AbbeyA Romanesque-Gothic abbey completed around 1189 near Albugnano, state-managed since 2014 and functioning as a visitable monument with a permanent exhibition in its chapter house, ranked among the most important medieval monuments of Piedmont yet far off the typical tourist path.
CherascoHidden GemAugusta BagiennorumA Roman colonial town near Bene Vagienna with excavated forum, theatre and amphitheatre, now an archaeological area open to visitors (~11,560 visitors in 2016).
SaluzzoHidden GemCastello della MantaA 12th-century castle near Saluzzo transformed into a noble residence, managed by FAI and famed for the Baronial Hall's Nine Worthies fresco cycle (c. 1420), a rare masterpiece of Late Gothic painting in northern Italy.
AlessandriaHidden GemLibarnaA former Roman city at Serravalle Scrivia founded in the 2nd century BC, whose archaeological area is open to visitors and includes a museum (about 4,565 visitors in 2015).
BaroloWiMu Wine MuseumFalletti castle setting, immersive wine storytelling, Barolo village views, Swiss-designed exhibitionInside the Falletti castle where Barolo wine was first refined, the WiMu tells wine as culture rather than chemistry. Five floors descend from myth and weather to the cellar, with the village's vineyards filling every window.
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Cities
City by city
Where the monuments cluster in Piedmont.