Thursday, November 28, 2019

Winter lights

Living in the Mediterranean area means that starting in November our day light hours get shorter and it gets dark earlier. Since 1998, in Turin, we have an artsy tradition to light up out streets and piazzas all around downtown: Luci d'Artista.



the Roman Palatine Doors or Porte Palatine in 2015: 'vento solare' or solar wind



Flying carpet

Literally translated it means: Lights by Artists because when our tradition started the project was designed to make of the Turin downtown an open air museum of contemporary art, displaying the works of 12 artists.
Over the years more artists joined this exhibit and now there are 25 light installations all around Turin. Originally, these installations were placed only in the historic city center, however in the past some were lent to Salerno, a town in Southern Italy, others were temporarily exchanged with Salerno when they also organized their exhibit too, and now, 12 of these lights are spread out all around Turin and its suburb.


Piccoli Spiri Blu or Little Blue Spirits on Monte dei Cappuccini across the River Po


Needless to precise, these are all famous Italian artists! So, no matter what your travel budget is, simply walking around Turin will turn into a unique art experience 😎


Galleria San Federico 'migrazione' - migration (climate change)

Most of these light installations are pure artworks and have little to do with the holidays. In fact,  there are constellations, red and blue cubes, flying ducks carrying a red ribbon, a series of male and female bodies joint by their heads, purplish circles, fluorescent ice-cream cones, a sun, but we also have some snowballs, minimalist Christmas trees, a whole Christmas tale and some very Christmassy-New Year's Eve lights too.
These last two take a whole long street and are always downtown.


back in 2016


Piazza Carignano: cosmometrie or esoteric symbols


Our winter lights come up on November 1st and are usually taken down around January 10th giving you all an extra reason to come over, visit Turin and enjoy all our many seasonal events that take place in these 2 months.


CioccolaTO 2019 in Via Roma under Luci d'Artista

Especially November is always full of many things to do and CioccolaTO - our chocolate fest and the Turin Film Fest are just two of our rich menu. In December, besides a theme of celebrations in our piazzas, we also have many artisan markets, culinary and art Christmas markets where you can buy locally made, handmade and one of a kind objects that will make the best Christmas presents and Turin souvenirs!


Via Lagrange: 'lui e l'arte di andar nel bosco' or
'he and the art of wandering in the woods'


'ice-cream light' at the Conservatory back in 2013
Fall is one glorious season to visit Turin, you can enjoy all our 25 Luci d'Artista, munch on chocolate, sip bicerin if you are into coffee or go for a cheese and wine tasting 😋
Our airport code is TRN and we also have 2 centrally located train stations (Torino Porta Susa and Torino Porta Nuova) connected by subway, so no matter where you start your tour, you can always go back to where you started.


Make it a unique travel to Italy: Torino will amaze you 🙆

E-mail Lucia for your private tours and private classes in Turin: lucia@turinepi.com


















2 comments:

  1. I'm so disappointed I missed the chocolate event when it happened. :( That's so awesome that the lights are up for such a long time! Definitely want to come this time of year sometime!

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    1. you should come in November so you can see both lights and the chocolate festival!!

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