The Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and 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...

 regions 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...

. The peak, the 7th highest mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 in the Graian Alps

Graian Alps

The Graian Alps are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. They are located in France , Italy , and Switzerland...

 with an elevation of 4,061 m, is close to Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...

 on the nearby border with France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. On the French side of the border, the park is continued by the Vanoise National Park

Vanoise National Park

Vanoise National Park , is a French national park in the Tarentaise Valley in the French Alps, created in 1963 after mobilization from the environmentalist movement against a touristic project. It was the first French national park. This park is in the département of Savoie...

. The Gran Paradiso is the only mountain whose summit reaches over 4,000 metres that is entirely within Italian territory.

The highest summit was first reached on September 4, 1860 by J. J. Cowell, W. Dundas, J. Payot and J. Tairraz. Today it is generally considered an easy climb, except for the last 60 metres to the top. Climbs normally start from either the Rifugio Chabod or the Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele Secondo. The latter is named after Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy who created the Gran Paradiso royal reserve in 1856, presently Gran Paradiso National Park

Gran Paradiso National Park

Gran Paradiso National Park is an Italian national park in the Graian Alps, between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions. The park is named after Gran Paradiso mountain, which is located in the park...

.

External links

• Ebyte.it, Gran Paradiso massif, a panorama with the names of all peaks