The Stone Heart of Italy

From the hills above Turin, from the ancient terraces of Biella, even on the clearest days, from the distant spires of Milan, one mountain alone commands the western horizon.

Not the highest peak in the Alps—that honor belongs to Mont Blanc—but the most imperious, the most solitary, the most impossible to ignore.

Monviso. Mons Vesulus to the Romans. "The mountain that is seen."

At 3,841 meters, it rises like a stone pyramid from the earth, dwarfing its neighbors by more than 500 meters of vertical solitude. Its name is its nature: it demands to be witnessed. From the great Padana plain that spreads between Turin and Milan—that vast saucer of fertility and civilization—Monviso stands as the undisputed sovereign of stone.

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