Riserva Naturale
Riserva Naturale in Piedmont
7 towns
Piedmont has 7 Riserva Naturale communes in our index. They cluster in the Biella, Novara, and Cuneo provinces.
The three most recognised in our catalogue are Orta San Giulio, Susa, and Biella. 4 more towns carry the mark alongside them.
Orta San Giulio
Province: Novara · 294 m
A Lake Orta promontory facing an islet with a Romanesque basilica, plus a UNESCO Sacro Monte of twenty Francis-of-Assisi chapels on the hill above.
Susa
Province: Torino · 503 m
The Roman gateway to the Cottian Alps at 503 meters, capital of the Alpes Cottiae and seat of the Cozii under Augustus and Cottius.
Biella
Province: Biella · 417 m
A wool city at 417 meters in the Alpine foothills, where the medieval Piazzo sits above the modern Piano, connected by a funicular since 1885.
Candelo
Province: Biella · 350 m
A Biellese commune at 350 meters whose Ricetto, a 13th-century fortified shelter of two hundred stone cellule, is the best-preserved in Piedmont.
Gattinara
Province: Vercelli · 265 m
The Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo town on volcanic soil between the Sesia and Monte Rosa, DOCG since 1990, with a tenth-century watchtower above the vines.
Gozzano
Province: Novara · 367 m
The town at the southern tip of Lake Orta, with a ninth-century basilica for Saint Julian and a twelfth-century signaling tower above the water.
Villar San Costanzo
Province: Cuneo · 605 m
A Val Maira village at 605 meters under Monte San Bernardo, with a reserve of 479 mushroom-shaped erosion columns.
Subscribe — free
Get the best guides on hidden Italian towns.
One letter on Sundays. The week’s town, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
Substack sends a confirmation link to your inbox. The signup finishes when it’s clicked.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Putignano
Province: Bari
Europe's longest-running carnival — Putignano Carnevale has run continuously since 1394, with 631 years of cartapesta papier-mâché floats, a 26,000-resident Murgia town on the Bari–Lecce plateau, and the Grotta del Trullo karst cave inside the centro.
Pistoia
Province: Pistoia
Italy's nursery capital and the medieval Tuscan rival that gave its name to the pistol — a quietly extraordinary centro storico of zebra-striped Romanesque churches, Andrea della Robbia's polychrome frieze on the Ospedale del Ceppo, and Italy's Capital of Culture 2017, all 30 minutes from Florence by train.
Tropea
Province: Vibo Valentia
Cliff town on a tufa headland over the Tyrrhenian Coast of the Gods, with a Norman monastery on a sea rock.
Caldes
Province: Trento
A scattered Val di Sole commune on the Noce, six hamlets gathered around a thirteenth-century tower-house castle that once belonged to the Thun family.
Cantiano
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A border borgo at 374 meters under Monte Catria on the old Via Flaminia, known for the Good Friday Turba and the sour-cherry visciola harvest.