A few millions years ago the
sea was covering the whole area , till
the foot of the mountains .
The name Piemonte means
in fact "at the foot of
the mountain" .
Many wonderful shells have
been found on ... the hills in
the middle of the country !!
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"Recently", about 2500 years ago , there where
the Gauls , a Celtic people .
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Then the
Romans conquered the whole territory about
200 years B.C.
Torino , the main city , was a roman
encampment (Augusta Taurinorum) and for this
reason has a chess-board map !
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A lot
of people came through this area (Ostrogoths ,
Franks , and many others) fighting or not , until
about 1000 A.D.
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Since then the noble
family of Savoia began to rule over
it. They reigned for about thousand years
till the end of the World War II.
The
Piemonte has been an independent State for
a long time , with
its own Army and a King who was
always applying a wise policy.
The presence
of the Savoia Royal Family (the oldest
in Europe) explains also the presence in
this area of a lot of Castles (about
500!!) built
by aristocratic families for defence or
simply to live in .
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Thanks to Piemonte Italy had been
unified about 150 years ago.
Torino was its first Capital until
1865 !
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