Sestriere

Sestriere is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Turin, in Piedmont, lying at about 2,035 metres above sea level on the pass of the same name that links the Chisone valley with the Susa valley, which makes it the highest municipality in Italy. With fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, it was born as a ski resort from 1930 on the initiative of Giovanni Agnelli, founder of FIAT, who built its two rationalist hotel towers, the first cable cars and an 18-hole golf course. It is part of the Via Lattea ski area, with around 400 kilometres of pistes, has hosted Alpine Ski World Cup races since the 1960s and staged the 1997 Alpine World Ski Championships. At the 2006 Winter Olympics it hosted most of the alpine skiing events and one of the three Olympic villages, and it has been a stage finish of the Tour de France in 1952, 1992, 1996 and 1999 and many times of the Giro d'Italia. Sestriere has been designated European Town of Sport 2028, a title reserved for municipalities of fewer than 25,000 inhabitants that will place it within the broad Italian representation of the ACES network.