Living in the Biella valleys: four valleys, four characters

Just outside Biella the valleys begin: stone houses, compact villages, woods and pastures. Each has a history and a character of its own, which we tell in our area pages. Here we set them side by side, with the home values published by the Italian Revenue Agency.

The values are those of the Property Market Observatory (OMI) for the second half of 2025, for ordinary homes in normal condition: ranges by area, not the price of a particular home.

Valle Elvo

It is the western edge of the Biella area, along the stream that gives it its name, bordering the Turin area and the Aosta Valley. It includes Camburzano, Donato, Graglia, Mongrando, Muzzano, Netro, Occhieppo Inferiore and Superiore, Pollone and Sordevolo. In Pollone is the Burcina, now a 57-hectare nature reserve; in Graglia the sanctuary born from a 1615 plan for a Sacro Monte; in Sordevolo the Passion play, documented since 1816, with the next edition in summer 2027.

Valle Cervo

It is the valley of the stonemasons and of syenite, a stone similar to granite, and of those who left to work it far away. It climbs from Andorno to Piedicavallo, beneath Monte Bo, 2,556 metres. The lower valley has Andorno Micca, Miagliano, Pralungo, Sagliano Micca, Tavigliano and Tollegno; the upper valley Campiglia Cervo, which since 2016 includes Quittengo and San Paolo Cervo, Rosazza and Piedicavallo. Rosazza, fewer than a hundred inhabitants at 882 metres, was transformed from 1883 by Senator Federico Rosazza Pistolet with the architect Giuseppe Maffei.

Valdilana

Valdilana is a municipality created in 2019 by merging Mosso, Soprana, Trivero and Valle Mosso: the valley of wool. In Trivero Ermenegildo Zegna founded his mill in 1910 and had more than half a million conifers planted on the mountain; the Panoramica Zegna road reached Bielmonte, at about 1,500 metres, in 1953. Since 1993 that mountain has been the Oasi Zegna, about a hundred square kilometres open to all.

Valle Sessera

Two valleys in one: woods and pastures above, a Natura 2000 protected area; the wool mills below, with Coggiola mentioned as early as 1152. It includes Ailoche, Caprile, Coggiola, Crevacuore, Portula, Pray and Sostegno. In Pray the former Zignone wool mill is now the Fabbrica della Ruota, with the system of cables and wheels installed in 1896-97 to transmit power.

Before buying in the valleys

Many valley homes are old stone houses: systems, heating and the regularity of the paperwork need careful checking, as we explain in our article on homes built before 1946. If it will be a second home, read our guide to the waste tax on a holiday home too. And try the road in the cold months and at the times you will really travel it: it matters as much as the house.