The Elvo is a 53 km torrent

Torrente

Torrente may refer to:* Torrent, Valencia, a municipality located within the metropolitan area of the city of the Spanish city Valencia* Torrente , a Parisian haute couture fashion house founded by designer Rosette Torrente-Mett in 1969; current creative director Julien Fournie* Gonzalo Torrente...

 (an intermittent stream) in the Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

 region of north-west Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and is the principal tributary of the Cervo. It runs through the communes of Sordevolo

Sordevolo

Sordevolo is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km northeast of Turin and about 7 km west of Biella. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,346 and an area of 13.8 km²....

, Occhieppo Superiore

Occhieppo Superiore

Occhieppo Superiore is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 3 km southwest of Biella...

, Occhieppo Inferiore

Occhieppo Inferiore

Occhieppo Inferiore is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km northeast of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,943 and an area of 4.0 km²....

, Cerrione

Cerrione

Cerrione is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 50 km northeast of Turin and about 11 km south of Biella...

 and Salussola

Salussola

Salussola is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 50 km northeast of Turin and about 14 km southeast of Biella....

 in the Province of Biella

Province of Biella

The Province of Biella is a province of Italy located in Piedmont. It was created in 1992 and its capital is the city of Biella.It has an area of 913 km², and a total population of 187,249...

, and of Carisio

Carisio

Carisio is a comune in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km northeast of Turin and about 20 km northwest of Vercelli...

 and Casanova Elvo

Casanova Elvo

Casanova Elvo is a comune in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km northeast of Turin and about 13 km northwest of Vercelli...

 in the Province of Vercelli

Province of Vercelli

Vercelli is a province in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Its capital is Vercelli., it has an area of 2,088 km², and a total population of 176,829...

.

The river’s valley is named after it as the Valle dell'Elvo. Here the municiplities are organized into two comunità montane: the Comunità Montana Alta Valle Elvo in the upper part of the valley, and the Comunità Montana Bassa Valle Elvo in the lower.

Many of the water courses of the Canavese

Canavese

thumb|250px|Church of Santa Croce at [[Sparone]].Canavese is a subalpine geographical and historical area of north-west Italy which lies today within the Province of Turin in Piedmont. Its main town is Ivrea and it is famous for its castles.-Location:...

 and of the area of Biella

Biella

Biella is a town and comune in the northern Italian region of Piemonte, the capital of the province of the same name, with some 45,800 inhabitants as of 2009. It is located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 80 km west-northwest of Milan.It lies in the foothills of the Alps,...

—the torrent Orco, for example—are noted for the presence of gold-bearing sands. In the case of the Orco these are concentrated in the area of the Bessa

Bessa

Bessa is a genus of flies in the family Tachinidae.-Species:*B. harveyi *B. selecta *B. remota *B. parallela...

 nature reserve.

Course

The river’s source is at an elevation of c.2,600 m. on the slopes of Monte Mars

Monte Mars

Monte Mars, at 2,600 m, is the highest peak of the Biellese Prealps, northern Italy.It is located on the water divide between the Valle del Lys and the Elvo Valley . The summit provides a panorama across the plains of the Po Valley and of the Monte Rosa massif...

, in the heart of the Biellese Prealps

Biellese Prealps

The Biellese Prealps, or prealpi biellesi form an area of the Italian prealps situated to the south of the Pennine Alps. Sometimes they are regarded as a distinct Alpine group, at others as a subgroup of the Pennine Alps....

. Having passed through various centres of population, it is joined from the right at Mongrando

Mongrando

Mongrando is a comune in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km northeast of Turin and about 8 km southwest of Biella...

 by its major tributary, the Viona. From here its broad pebbly shores follow the edge of the Bessa nature reserve, which lies to its right and is part of the Riserva naturale orientata delle Baragge.

Near Salussola it enters into the plains of Vercelli and follows a slower and more sinuous course before emptying into the Cervo near Quinto Vercellese

Quinto Vercellese

Quinto Vercellese is a comune in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km northeast of Turin and about 8 km northwest of Vercelli. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 438 and an area of 11.1 km².Quinto Vercellese borders the following...

.

Regime

The Elvo has a regime typical of a prealpine Italian torrent with maximum discharges in the autumn and spring together with a tendency to dry up in the summer and winter months. In the event of high levels of precipitation it is liable to become ‘torrential’.