Classification SOIUSA the Italian Alps
The traditional classification system according to the Alpine Italian geography, formulated in 1924 during the Italian Geographical Congress IX and made official in 1926, has recently been surpassed by SOIUSA (Subdivision orographic International Alpine Unified System), presented in 2005 and well publicized by some magazines specialist.
This new division, acknowledged internationally, assign a different extension, several limitations and a new internal division also to the foothills.
Lessini winter view of the mountains, foothills in Veneto
The SOIUSA identifies the natural boundary between the Alps proper and the foothills of the Alps, to the south with respect to it, in the so-called Line Insubria, an almost continuous system of fractures which, starting from the area north of Biella and continuing in a north- east of the alpine system cuts longitudinally dividing the Alps from the main South-Eastern Alps (also known as the Southern Limestone Alps).
According to the SOIUSA the Alps are divided into sections, each of which belongs to a sector of the Alpine:
* North-Western Alps
- Pre Luganesi (Lombard pre-Alps and Western Alps Varesine in the traditional classification)
* South-Eastern Alps
- Bergamo Alps (Central Alps of Lombardy)
- Pre and Gardesane Brescia (Lombardy Alps Eastern)
- Venetian Alps (Alps Vicenza and Belluno Pre-Alps)
- Julian Alps
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