Piazza Galimberti

Driving up into Cuneo from the surrounding flat orchards and fields, visitors are met by the town’s unexpectedly large 24,000-sq-metre main square, the Piazza Galimberti.  Striking not just for its size but also for its magnificent proportions and the quality of the surrounding architecture, this is an introduction that will be hard to beat on entering any other Italian city.  To the south of the square is the equally impressive Corso Nizza, which is also lined with the most exquisitely proportioned and grand buildings, lending the town the air of a much larger city.

In truth, the striking beauty of the town itself, only serves as an appetiser to the scale and splendour of the surrounding mountains, and your hire car will have you high above the town in minutes, winding your way along the mountain roads and making the most of the many vantage points from which this delightful town and province can be fully appreciated.

Cuneo Col de Tende pass

Any visitor to Cuneo will soon become aware that in order truly to make the most of this beautiful town’s surroundings, one must hire a car and take to the hills.  From Cuneo, the most rewarding route, for its spectacular scenery and amazing vantage points high in the Alps, is the Col de Tende pass, which connects Cuneo with Nice.  At the wheel of your hire car, this route will see you negotiate a quite thrilling route through a series of tunnels and cuttings across the Maritime Alps and into France.

The road itself was inaugurated in 1882, and incorporates one of the oldest road tunnels of note in Europe.  It roughly follows a route thought to have first been developed by the Phoenicians and later maintained by the Greeks and then the Romans.  Whatever the road’s provenance, there can be no doubt that it makes the hiring of four wheels an absolute must during any trip to the town of Cuneo or the region in general.

Cuneo not just for skiing - although that is rather good!

The little town (or city some say) of Cuneo is the capital of the Cuneo region in Italy.  Cuneo nestles in the flats of the Valley of Stura, where the rivers of Stura De Demote and Gesso converge. As both of these rivers flow from the Alps from France then you can guess what attracts a lot of visitors over winter – skiing! Many a skiing enthusiast will head to Cuneo over the skiing season – even more so now that Ryan air offer cheap flights to Cuneo airport.

 

While we highly recommend that you visit Cuneo for the skiing season – it is also worth of a visit in itself own right.  Cuneo itself became to prosper in the latter half of the Twelfth Century.  Like many of Italy’s cities at that time, it was fearful of invaders and was therefore surrounded by huge walls and battlements.  The reason for this is in some part down to the strategic importance of its locality as it guarded the valleys into France.  That is why Mr Boneparte invaded in 1797 and ripped down the walls.  There are no invaders at this time so we highly recommend a visit