The French Piedmont, the Italian Piemonte, and other variant cognates come from the medieval Latin Pedemontium or Pedemontis, i.e. ad pedem montium, meaning "at the foot of the mountains" (referring to the Alps), attested in documents from the end of the 12th century.

[4] Piedmont is surrounded on three sides by the Alps, including Monviso, where the river Po rises, and Monte Rosa.

It borders France (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), Switzerland (Ticino and Valais), and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley, and for a very small part with Emilia Romagna.

The countryside is very diverse: from the rugged peaks of the massifs of Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso to the damp rice paddies of Vercelli and Novara, from the gentle hillsides of the Langhe, Roero, and Montferrat to the plains.

In areas located at low altitudes, winters are relatively cold but not very rainy and often sunny, with the possibility of snowfall, sometimes abundant.

They were later subdued by the Romans (c. 220 BC), who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Eporedia (Ivrea).

[6] At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marches and counties.

Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni (municipalities) of Asti and Alessandria and the marquisates of Saluzzo and Montferrat.

It was the first Italian institution to combine the activities being carried out by pre-existing local organizations to promote the territory internationally.

[13] Most of the ex-Fiat plants now belong to other companies: aerospace is owned by Leonardo S.p.A., turbo jet engines by General Electric, high-speed trains by Alstom, bearings by SKF.

Fiat does not exist anymore as an independent company; car production belongs to Stellantis, and trucks, buses, tractors, agriculture and construction machines are produced by the independent company CNH Industrial (most manufacturing activity takes place in the United States, in Piedmont only the production of New Holland excavators in San Mauro Torinese and IVECO diesel engines in Turin).

Even existing Italian car production now relocated to South Italy, such as in Pomigliano d'Arco (140,478 in 2020), Melfi (229,848 in 2020), and Atessa (257,026 in 2020), because of cost cutting.

Tourism in Piedmont employs 75,534 people and involves 17,367 companies operating in the hospitality and catering sector, with 1,473 hotels and other tourist accommodation.

Around 1980, the long-distance trail Grande Traversata delle Alpi (GTA) was created to draw more attention to the variety of remote, sparsely inhabited valleys.

First of all, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1997 and, secondly, it represents a peculiarity of the region, since such a network cannot be found elsewhere in Italy.

The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy belong to the historical and cultural heritage of Piedmont and nowadays they play a central role in the tourism field.

[19] In a reality in which the tourism industry is characterized by an amalgam of several players and stakeholders, the creation of a system or network like the one of the Royal Residences represents an added benefit for the whole territory as well as a competitive edge.

[20] Therefore, considering that tourism is a key factor in the creation of long-lasting value and working in a cooperative and collaborative perspective is essential,[21] the network of the Royal Residences represents an example worth of notice.

Piedmont has many small and picturesque villages, 20 of them have been selected by I Borghi più belli d'Italia (English: The most beautiful Villages of Italy),[22] a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest,[23] that was founded on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities.

It is possible to reach Switzerland via a normal road that crosses eastern Piedmont, starting from Arona and ending in Locarno, on the Swiss border.

The economy of Piedmont is anchored on a rich history of state support for higher education, including some of the leading universities in Italy.

The Turin metro area grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s due to an increase of immigrants from southern Italy and Veneto and today it has a population of approximately two million.

As of 2008[update], the Italian national institute of statistics (ISTAT) estimated that 310,543 foreign-born immigrants lived in Piedmont, equal to 7.0% of the total regional population.

[29] In the 2010 Piedmontese regional election, which took place on 29–30 March, Roberto Cota of Lega Nord defeated incumbent Mercedes Bresso of the Democratic Party (PD).

For the 2014 Piedmontese regional election, Cota chose not to stand again for president and the parties composing his coalition failed to agree on a single candidate, resulting in a landslide victory for Sergio Chiamparino, a member of the PD who had been mayor of Turin from 2001 to 2011.

According to Italian writer and journalist Massimo Alberini, tagliolini was among King Victor Emmanuel II's preferred dishes.

[35] Since 2006, the Piedmont region has benefited from the start of the Slow Food movement and Terra Madre, events that highlighted the rich agricultural and viticultural value of the Po Valley and northern Italy.

Other smaller teams include the old "Piedmont Quadrilateral" components Novara, Alessandria, Casale, and Pro Vercelli.

[38] The Games' logo depicted a stylized profile of the Mole Antonelliana building, drawn in white and blue ice crystals, signifying the snow and the sky.

The 2006 Olympic mascots were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female snowball, and Gliz, a male ice cube.