Biella is a small town conveniently located a few kilometres between Turin and Milan. Laying among the Alps in the north-east part of Piedmont, it is surrounded by numerous natural parks and protected areas. Biella's textile industry dates back to ancient times. The poorly fertile hills surrounding the city forced its inhabitants, since the XVII century, to concentrate on sheep farming and the subsequent manufacturing of yarn and textile products (i.e. Fratelli Piacenza, which is still today one of the most renowned Biella's wool mills in the cachemire sector, was founded in 1733).

Thanks to its strategic position at the foothills of the Alps and conveniently located near several waterways (it is the peculiar chemical composition of the local water that confers Biella's textile products their world renowned excellence), Biella and its territory ended up becoming a single extended workshop of drapery makers and tailors, whose products were then sent to the city and its thriving textile market, the last stop of the so-called "Wool Road" that runs across medieval and modern Europe, and that today connects Biella to Australia or New Zealand (sheep farming and wool production)