Torino Italy Arounder Virtual Tours and Maps

Discover the beauty of Torino with Virtual Tours and Maps

Former Roman castrum and former capital of the Savoy kingdom, Turin was labeled for years as industrial city (with an important motor car sector), hence casting a shadow over its beauty and history, it's importance as cultural pole, and - finally - its charme. Several of its buildings - such as the Royal Palace, the Palazzo Madama, the Rivoli Castle...to name but a few - are part of the Unesco World Heritage. Religious buildings, such as the Chiesa della Grande Madre di Dio, the Dome of Turin (where the Sacred Shroud is...) and Santa Maria del Monte, keep adding beauty to Turin, and....gates to Paradise too (when the city is renown as being one of those part of a triangle of black magick, where the gates to hell can be found - and the exact address seems to be Piazza Statuto...). Museums play an important role. To start with, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema - in the Mole Antonelliana - is a rich experience about the development of the movie industry. Several kinds of art can be found at the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica (Civic Gallery of Ancient Art) which hosts (as the name implies...) pieces of Ancient Art, the GAM (Civil Gallery of Modern Art), which - with its 5000 paintings and 400 sculptures - is the second largest museum of this kind in Italy -; the Egyptian Museum, and the Rivoli Castle, where works by artists from the Fifties onwards are on display. Surely worth a visit is the Borgo and Rocca Medievale, a mock medieval castle with its village, built taking as a model the Castle of Fenis. As a time machine, it will take you back to Middleage, where you will see how a difficult life was, without running water, light, heating system, medicine, cars, planes, forks and...computers. Turin hosted the Olympic Games in 2006 and the Stadio Olimpico holds the memories of those past days, along with the Oval, where the ice skating competitions took place. The latter one is, at the present, used as a congress and fairy place, together with the Lingotto. Turin hosts several interesting events, such as the Book Fair, which attracts over 150000 visitors every year; the Artissima, which hosts 120 leading art galleries and experts during the fair, the Music fair (with concerts and conferences on music), and the Gran Balôn, a flea market (it takes place every Saturday and every second Sunday of the month) which offers merchandise of an outstanding quality. Stroll along the streets of the center, such as Via Po, Via Roma, Via Garibaldi and Piazza Castello, to shop under the arcades. Any designer is present with his/her boutique, and you will have the chance to find local gastronomic specialties shops, jewelries, wineries too. And do not forget that Turin isn't known in the world of sport only by the fact it hosted the Olympics: it is - on the contrary - a city where sport...plays an important role. Juventus, the renown football team, was born here; ski resorts can be found in the outskirt of the city, and rowing is practiced along the Po river. Finally, if you enjoy the good table, you will be amazed by the regional dishes served: anchovies in green sauce, agnolotti, boiled meat, pot roast, bagna caoda....And among the sweet things, Turin is famous for its gianduia and zabaione. Do not forget to accompany everything with a glass of good wine; remember to try the Vermouth, and pay a visit to the Martini distillery. A good night sleep will take all the extra alcohol away...