Monviso, which watches over Piedmont’s plains with its formidable pyramid, is the mountain linked to the Italian Alpine Club. In August 1863, Quintino Sella, a minister of the newly established Kingdom of Italy, during the first entirely Italian climb up its 3,841 metres, launched the idea of creating a national alpine club on the model of the ones that were being established all over Europe, similar to the London Alpine Club. A few months later the Alpine Club was established in Turin.