The Alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies in Europe, stretching 1,200 kilometres across eight Alpine countries: France, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia. The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps; the Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4,000 metres. The altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe. Wildlife such as ibex live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m, plants such as Edelweiss grow in rocky areas in lower elevations as well as in higher elevations. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era. A mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991.

By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established. Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800, Napoleon crossed one of the mountain passes with an army of 40,000; the 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists and artists, in particular, the Romantics, followed by the golden age of alpinism as mountaineers began to ascend the peaks. The Alpine region has a strong cultural identity; the traditional culture of farming and woodworking still exists in Alpine villages, although the tourist industry began to grow early in the 20th century and expanded after World War II to become the dominant industry by the end of the century. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, Italian and German Alps. At present, the region has 120 million annual visitors; the English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes. In his commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil, the late fourth-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus says that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts.

The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp. This may be consistent with the theory. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb "hill". Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, "Albania" was a name for the eastern Caucasus, while in the English languages "Albania" was used as a name for Scotland, although it is more derived from the Latin word albus, the color white; the Latin word Alpes could come from the adjective albus. In modern languages the term alp, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a high mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found, the term "the Alps", referring to the mountains, is a misnomer.

The term for the mountain peaks varies by nation and language: words such as Horn, Kopf, Spitze and Berg are used in German speaking regions. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width; the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, stretching eastward through mid and southern Switzerland; the range continues onward toward Vienna and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the southern border of Bavaria in Germany. In areas like Chiasso and Allgäu, the demarcation between the mountain range and the flatlands are clear; the countries with the greatest alpine territory are Austria, Italy and Switzerland. The highest portion of the range is divided by the glacial trough of the Rhône valley, from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa on the southern side, the Bernese Alps on the northern.

The peaks in the easterly portion of the range, in Austria and Slovenia, are smaller than those in the central and western portions. The variances in nomenclature in the region spanned by the Alps makes classification of the mountains and subregions difficult, but a general classification is that of the Eastern Alps and Western Alps with the divide between the two occurring in eastern Switzerland according to geologist Stefan Schmid, near the Splügen Pass; the highest peaks of the Western Alps and Eastern Alps are Mont Blanc, at 4,810 m and Piz Bernina at 4,049 metres. The second-highest major peaks a

Spring Mountain Vineyard is a 225 acres vineyard consisting of 135 different vineyard blocks scattered over the 845-acre estate in California's Napa Valley. Spring Mountain Vineyard was in fourth place among French and American wines at the historic Judgment of Paris wine competition in 1976; the elegant Victorian mansion, known on the estate as Miravalle, was commissioned by Mexican-American businessman Tiburcio Parrott in 1884, designed by architect Albert Schroepfer. Schroepfer designed several other homes in similar elegant style, for example The Rhine House at Beringer Vineyards; the original winery and cave was established in 1885 by Parrott. The current vineyards are on the eastern slope of Spring Mountain at elevations varying from 400 feet to 1,700 feet; the estate now includes four adjacent vineyards including the 435-acre La Perla, 257-acre Miravalle, 120-acre Chevalier, 33-acre Streblow. La Perla Winery and Vineyard were established in 1873 by Charles Lemme; the La Perla Winery building is still standing.

This property contained the first Cabernet Sauvignon on Spring Mountain. The adjacent Chevalier and Miravelle properties were established during the 19th century. From 1981 until 1990, Spring Mountain Vineyards became known to television viewers as the setting for the CBS drama series Falcon Crest. Cast and crew would film exterior scenes here for six weeks each summer before relocating to Los Angeles to shoot interior scenes; the mansion and many acres of surrounding vineyards, served as the fictional home of ruthless matriarch Angela Channing, played by Jane Wyman. Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005. Spring Mountain Vineyard

Procession known as The Procession, is a 1982 mural and sculpture by artists Dallas Cole and Scott Wylie, with additional contributions by Jill Perry and Joanne Haines, installed outside the Hilton Hotel in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. Procession is an outdoor sculpture by Dallas Cole and Scott Wylie, the latter of whom designed the bricks and tiles, installed outside the west entrance of the Hilton Hotel's Conference Center. Additional contributions were made by Joanne Haines, it depicts five Egyptian figures, including two dancers, two water bearers, one person surrounded by five birds and a turtle. The mural measures 4 inches x 30 feet, 6 inches. One plaque set into the work reads, SEPTEMBER, 1982 / DALLAS COLE / SCOTT WYLIE / JILL PERRY / JOANNE HAINES. An indoor plaque nearby reads, PROCESSION / DALLAS WILLIAMS COLE / 1982; the sculpture was surveyed and deemed "treatment needed" by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in October 1993. It was administered by the Cultural Services Division of the City of Eugene's Recreation and Cultural Services Department at that time.

1982 in art Public Art at Jill Perry Townsend's official website