Published on: 10 October 2014  | Last updated: 7 January 2020

This tour explores the alpine valleys between France and Italy on the western side of the Italian region of Piemonte. The area deserves to be better known: if you’re looking for great mountain scenery, unspoilt alpine villages, authentic Italian towns, then this area has it all.

As you’d expect, the region has its own identity with a twist - it’s the only place in Italy where I’ve seen bars serving pastis (Pernod etc). Like much of the Italian Alps, the area is a fascin­ating mosaic of languages and history. 

In many places in these valleys you’ll see the red and yellow Occitan flag flying, and in some of the remoter villages, you’ll still hear children speaking the provençal language. Occitania was (or is) the whole region that lies between here and the Atlantic, taking in southern France, Provence and Catalonia. The Piemonte valleys are the easternmost outposts. 

Many of the valleys are no-through roads (although some link with France, or with one another) and in some cases, you can continue on by foot to mountain passes that were once part of ancient trading routes.

It may seem strange to go up a valley only to come back down again, but these no-through-road valleys can offer some of the best cycling in Italy - and of course they don’t have any through traffic. If you’re worried about getting bored seeing the same places twice, you’d be surprised how the same ride can seem different on the way up from on the way down.

Highlights/What to see

Each of the valleys has something to offer:

• Alpi Marittimi national park
• Dronero with the Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge) - a feat of medieval engineering
• Bellino - an extraordinary hidden valley with tiny almost-unspoilt villages
• Castello di Manta the castel built by the Marquises of Saluzzo and carefully restored with the frescoes of the Fountain of Eternal Youth
• the Forte di Fenestrelle, Europe’s biggest defensive structure, which extends for a couple of kilometres up the side of a mountain
• Balma Boves a village built under a huge rocky outcrop
• Monviso and the source of the Po high on a mountain plateau.

For lovers of cycling history there’s the climb to the Colle della Maddalena - where in the Giro d’Italia of 1949 Italian cycling legend Fausto Coppi made an amazing solo breakaway that has become legendary.

Map and altitude profile

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Distances
Vald di Gesso	59kms
Val di Stura	121 kms
Val Varaita	141 kms
Valle Po	80 kms
Val Pellice	57 kms
Val Chisone	84 kms
Val di Susa	85kms

When to go

I did this route in August but possibly June or September would be the ideal time, when it’s not too hot on the lower parts of the route and not too cold on the higher parts - although the highest points on the route are around 2000 metres, so should be OK in June or October.

Options

You could do this tour in either direction. You could leave out some of the valleys or you could also extend it further north into the Val d’Aosta and the Gran Paradiso national park. Also, there were some valleys I missed out from this route, for lack of time, but which I’m sure would be worth visiting.

The route is challenging, but not overly so. If you don’t think it’s challenging enough then you could add to it a climb to the Colle dell’Agnello, or there’s a variant via the Colle d’Esischie and Colle di Sampeyre.

The route uses quiet roads wherever possible, however, there are some sections that might be busier at times. 

You could use these valleys as part of an inter­na­tional tour. The Italian Parco Alpi Marittime for example has joined forces with the French Alps Mercantour to promote the Grand Tour degli Alpi Marittimi Mercantour (see Piemonte: useful websites): there’s version aimed at touring motorists as well as a version aimed specifically at cyclists - although there are some intim­id­ating climbs so this route is probably most suited to sports cyclists travelling unloaded. for more inform­ation see the Piemonte useful websites page.

Connections

The route uses the Via Pedemontana Alpina cycle route to link the different valleys. The Via Pedemontana Alpina in Piemonte is part of a planned national that will follow the arc of the alps from the Ligurian to the Adriatic coast. The final route is still under discussion, but much of it is already in place, as it follows existing roads or cycleways. 

The tour ends at Rivoli near Torino. It connects here with the Corona di Delizie cycle route. This is a cycle route that links the UNESCO World Heritage sites around the city. It offers a couple of good options if you want to go into Torino - or go to the airport.

Connections with national and international routes

A number of national and inter­na­tional routes pass through Piemonte:

• eurovelo 8: This connects France in the west with Slovenia in the east, following the river Po across Italy. You could connect with this route at Cuneo or east from Torino along the river Po;
• the Moncenisio variant of the eurovelo 5 Ciclovia Francigena (also known as the Ciclovia dei Pellegrini). You can connect with it just to the south of Torino and follow it through Piemonte and over the Apennines to the coast of Liguria;
• the Ciclovia Francigena passes through Asti where it connects with the Bicitalia Svizzera-Mare route which takes you to San Remo and Ventimiglia on the Ligurian coast close to the border with France.

If you are looking for a connection with France you might want to consider the Colle della Lombarda (2350m) which connects Vinadio in the Valle Stura with Isola in France (via the ski resort of Isola 2000). From there you’re about a day’s ride from Nice. On the Italian side, it’s a 21-kilometre climb from Vinadio, with an average gradient of 6.7 per cent. On the French side, it’s also a 21-kilometre climb with a gradient of 6.9%. I haven’t done this route, but from Google Streetview it looks like a quiet, scenic option and probably the least problematic of the crossing points in the area. So it’s the one I’d choose. 

Articles in this series:

• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte: Overview
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 1: the Val Gesso
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 2: The Valle Stura
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 3: The Val Varaita
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 4: The Valle Po
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 5: The Val Pellice
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 6: The Val Chisone
• Mountain Valleys of Piemonte 7: The Val di Susa