I live closed to the area you have mentioned. Well, I live in Torino, which is half an hour from Ivrea. This town is a very old and fashionable town and it's very famous for the historical carnival. Every year in this period (well starting from January) people go crazy to organize everything and during the real carnival people don't work but Live the carnival. The history referres to a Middle Age Lord who put into practice the ius primae noctis (sorry for the spelling), and a girl who refused it and killed him. Mixed with this there's an orange battle which should reproduce the period when this area was taken by french. It's really interesting and people are really proud of it and they enjoyed so much. Every day there's something to see or to live.

The area can be really nice in spring, but my favorite country area in Piemonte is for sure the Alba and Cuneo area, where the most important wines are produced. The hills and the towns are really nice. Anyway in Italy it's difficult to say where to go, because every area has small towns rich of history and culture or nice landscape.

Simona