Today we leave for a car itinerary marked by the Italian Touring Club among the most beautiful in Italy thanks to the splendid 360° view of the Alps and the Po Valley. This is about Overview Zegna, a 26-kilometer route in the Biellese, which joins Trivero to the Cervo Valley, designed in the 1930s by Ermenegildo Zegna, ecologist ante litteram, creator of great entrepreneurial successes and promoter of important social and aesthetic transformations of his native land.
The realization of the Overview is in fact inserted in a wider project inspired by the ethical ideal of 'worker village' as an independent nucleus and equipped with all the necessary infrastructure but also pleasant from the aesthetic point of view.
Between 1932 and 1939, important infrastructures such as hospitals, schools, commercial exercises and a leisure club were created in Trivero, and the surrounding mountain was transformed into a lush garden full of fir trees, rhododendrons and hydrangeas and able to offer the workers of the plant a place of recreation and escape.
In the footsteps of Ermenegildo Zegna the descendants of the family continued the project of protection and enhancement of the environment, culminated in 1993 in the realization of the Oasi Zegna, a protected natural area extended for about 100 square kilometers, equipped with a rich signage complete with panoramic tables, signs and panels that illustrate in the details flora, fauna and geological characteristics of the area.
From the suggestive Trail of rhododendrons, a simple 15-minute walk that allows you to enjoy in May the spectacular flowering of the valley below, the imperative Itinerary Dolciniano that traces the route in 1307 to the heretic Fra Dolcino fleeing from its refuge in Rassa, in Valsesia, there are 28 self-guided routes that allow excursions of different length and difficulty towards the Alta Valle Cervo and Valsessera.
In the center of the Overview is the tourist resort of Biel (1500 m) 13 km from Trivero, winter sports center equipped with quality hotels and typical restaurants and in the beautiful season starting point for trekking and MTB itineraries, and equipped for horse riding, climbing or paragliding enthusiasts.
