Viewpoint: Poggio Alemanno

A midwinter’s dawn breaks at Poggio Alemanno in Oltrepò Pavese, illuminating the remains of the previous night’s light snowfall. Photo by Getty Images

Poggio Allemanno

We tend to associate winter snow with northern Europe, but in fact snowfall in Italy, in the north at least, is a lot more common than we might imagine. In the mountains, of course, the ski resorts couldn’t do without it – but even here, in Poggio Alemanno, in the lower altitudes of the Po Valley in Lombardy, when the wind comes from the north, the climate can become distinctly continental. Night time temperatures can remain below zero for days, even weeks, on end. One thing’s for certain… it makes for a quite spectacular sunrise.

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