3416 ITALY (Piedmont) - Superga air disaster

On the afternoon of May 4, 1949, the weather in Turin was miserable: clouds almost touching the ground, showers, strong southwest wind gusts, and very poor horizontal visibility. In these conditions, a three-engined Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hill on the outskirts of Turin. The impact caused the instantaneous death of all the 31 people on board.

1651 ITALY (Piedmont / Lombardy) - Varese - part of Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy (UNESCO WHS)

The nine Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) of northern Italy are groups of chapels and other architectural features created in the late 16th and 17th centuries and dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. In addition to their symbolic spiritual meaning, they are of great beauty by virtue of the skill with which they have been integrated into the surrounding natural landscape. They also house much important artistic material in the form of wall paintings and statuary. This phenomenon began at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries with the aim of creating in Europe places of prayer as alternative to the Holy Places in Jerusalem and Palestine, access to which was becoming more difficult for pilgrims owing to the rapid expansion of Muslim culture.

0844, 0870 ITALY (Piedmont) - Borromean Islands - part of Lake Maggiore and Lake D'Orta lakelands (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

0844 Borromean Islands - Isola Bella

Posted on 18.10.2013, 21.11.2013
Known for its Mediterranean-like climate and for its beauty, Lago Maggiore (Greater Lake), a glacial lake surrounded by the Lepontine Alps, spans in Italy (Piedmont and Lombardy) and Switzerland (canton of Ticino. The most known and picturesque islands of this lake are Borromean Islands, located in the western arm of the lake, between Verbania to the north and Stresa to the south. Their name derives from the House of Borromeo, which started acquiring them in the early 16th century (Isola Madre) and still owns the majority of them (Isola Madre, Bella, San Giovanni) today.

0870 Borromean Islands - Isola Madre

Isola Bella (Beautiful Island) is situated 400m from the lakeside town of Stresa. Until 1632, it was a rocky crag occupied by a fishing village, but that year Carlo III began the construction of a palazzo dedicated to his wife, Isabella D'Adda, from whom the island takes its name. The works were interrupted because of the plague, but was resumed by the Carlo’s sons, who turned the villa into a place of sumptuous parties for the nobility of Europe. The completion of the gardens was left to his nephew Carlo IV, and was inaugurated in 1671.