Turin

The first capital of Italy is a “drawing-room city” of elegant porticoes surrounded by green hills and, further afield, by majestic mountains. This is Turin, a city distinguished by the dignified elegance of its architecture, an Italian Paris, boasting a noble, glorious past and a present infused with revolutionary technology.

From a Roman colony to an industrial city, Turin has had several different incarnations, each of which has left profound traces in its architecture and urban layout. Extending over a surface area of less than 150 sq.m., crossed by the Po, the longest river in Italy, it is characterized by a checkerboard-like grid of streets that makes getting your bearings easy. One of the city’s most distinctive architectural features is its 18km of porticoes – mostly located in the city centre – which house shops and cafés. Its porticoes, originally designed to offer shade in the summer and shelter from the rain, snow, and sometimes the wind in winter, and its elegant squares have given Turin the nickname of a “drawing room” city.

When talking about Piedmont’s capital city, the most recurring adjective is ‘sober’: despite its refined and sometimes intense beauty, the city is of the kind that likes to reveal itself slowly. Though not characterized by the brazen sumptuousness of Rome and Florence or the fashionable touch of Milan, it does have avenues of rare elegance, precious architectures and perfect squares. Perhaps it is precisely its secrecy that has fuelled a reputation for the occult, as Turin is also considered one of the capitals of esotericism.

The city is closely linked to the Savoy royal family and has a circuit of palaces that would be the envy of Versailles. It also has the most important Egyptian Museum in the world, after the one in Cairo, but the symbol of the city is still the Mole Antonelliana, which today houses the National Museum of Cinema: the monumental building, built in the second half of the 19th century, was for a long time the tallest in Europe.

Turin boasts an enviable geographic position. It is surrounded by green hills that stand 700 metres above sea level, and which, in addition to their natural beauty, also offer numerous cultural and historical attractions. The city is also an ideal base to reach several of Europe’s most renowned ski resorts. It is therefore not surprising that the city is described as the “Capital of the Alps”.