Turin Stocking Stuffers

Happy Saint Lucy's Day to all those who celebrate December 13th, including our very own Lucia of Turinepi!!

Besides Scandinavia and St Lucia, St Lucia's is a festive day in many parts of Italy where she brings the Christmas presents, leaving Santa just some small packages to fill up his stockings.

Originally from Syracuse, Sicily, during the Roman times, Lucia was persecuted and martyrized because she wouldn't renounce her faith. Her relics traveled to many places and because her name means light, her story finally merged with the Winter Solstice and this is how she make it up to Northern Europe where she's represented wearing a crown of candles and bringing light in the 'longest dark day of the year'.

If you can read Italian, enjoy our short story here.

Fiat 500 where the T stands for Torino

il sole tra la nebbia

Tra le giornate buie, uggiose e nebbiose, quando il sole pallido traspare dalle nuvole ci porta grande gioia, la stessa che vogliamo portare a tutti gli amanti di Torino, del Piemonte, della lingua e della cultura italiana a cui questo racconto è dedicato.

galleria Lux

One of Milan's symbols is their one and only galleria near the Duomo, Turin on her hand can brag about her beautiful 3 super gallerias: Galleria Umberto I near the Porta Palazzo market, in the Roman Quadrilatero area, Galleria Subalpina in Piazza Castello between Caffé Mulassano and Caffé Baratti Milano, two royal coffee shops and Galleria San Federico in Via Roma!

Lucia Hannau, photo by Alberto Bonis

Turin University

the historic university building from the 1700

Back in the 2006, a Winter Olympic Games TV ad said 'the whole world comes to Turin', and indeed many famous people have passed through Turin much earlier than 2006, fell in love with our city, chose it to spend a part of their lives and even study here!

Besides an airport - look up for TRN - Turin also has one of the oldest Italian, and of the world, universities!!

Founded in 1404, the current university structure, including the labs, the classrooms and all the offices are spread out from the 1700 Rectorate building, in downtown Via Po, to many mini campuses that reach out as far the Turin's suburb.

Unlike North American and British universities, Turin doesn't have just one whole area devoted to the university, because this one has grown over the centuries following the city's life and it urban developments.
Each school or college has its own library, located in its own building or mini campus; the university dorms are also spread out all over Turin to be located nearby the different schools or colleges.

Generally speaking, when referring to the University of Turin, the locals mean 2 institutions: the Liberal Arts School, located near Mole Antonelliana and Via Po and Politecnico where the Engineering and Architecture Schools have their administration.

July in Turin

Here are 5 good reasons to visit Turin in July!

1. The sales!!

shoe designer Manuela Gomez drawing her client's foot

Happy Holidays!

La Befana holding Turin's Mole Antonelliana by Alberto Bonis

Strolling around Turin

Follow our Twitter friend, Michael Hindley strolling around Turin through his favorite parts of our city.

Michael was educated at London University and the Free University of West Berlin and is a former Member of the European Parliament.
Michael has travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia.
He writes and lectures on European politics and divides his time between his native Lancashire and Evian-les-Bains, France.
Follow Michael on Twitter @HindleyLancs

Dong Film Fest

Fall in Turin is a rather rich season of events, especially for all those who love cinema. As Italian cinema was born in Turin - that was the Hollywood of silent productions in 1910s, it doesn't come as a surprise that we are now hosting such a unique festival as the Dong Film Fest.

6 Italian things born in Turin

Italy is famous for many things, yet very few people are aware that these Italian symbols in the world were actually born in Turin, first capital of Italy in 1861. 

bull fountains

Small green fountains with the bull head - toret in the local dialect, are one of the Turin's symbols together with Mole Antonelliana and gianduiotti chocolates.

Reine's taste of Turin

Today we are sharing our friend Reine's guest post about her recent visit here in Turin and her fun itinerary!

Be warned: you'll want to follow her steps soon:D

Reine Dugas Bouton teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University.  She has taken students to Italy for summer study abroad for ten years and has published academic writing, fiction, and nonfiction. She documents her travels on her blog and Twitter account. 

She lives in New Orleans with her son, and her dog and cat too.

Museums to see in Turin

Through the centuries Turin has always been one of the main centers where creative minds, intellectuals and innovators converged to. Maybe because of its clean 18th century architecture and polished elegance, the average Turin resident is generally quite into arts and always on the look for mental stimulation, literally of any kind. 

So, it makes sense that Turin hosts many unique museums with incredible large collections you won't find in any other city! 

These are the top 5 musuems you can't miss out on your first visit to Turin!

Turin: hidden treasure

Enjoy this guest post by Tom from Bristol (UK) co-author of There's treasure everywhere a very interesting and rich website about art, travel, books, movies and food. This website aims to be a place where you can read about the hidden gems that make your life better. 

Thanks to this trip to Turin, there is now a travel section on his website and more people can be introduced to this wonderful city!

Turin is a hidden treasure

Our decision to visit Turin was made without a great deal of research. We wanted to visit a city that was near mountains. One that would be interesting but with plenty of scope for relaxing, oh and some nice food and wine would be great as well. 

Nestled in the foot of the Alps, the location was as expected perfect. What we didn’t realise though was how beautiful, stimulating and downright delicious the city would be.

The Lady Travels guest post: Mole Antonelliana

We want to start the week before our event with this celebrative post about Turin's symbol Mole Antonelliana by the British blogger The Lady Travels. The Lady Travels is an online memoir of travels by a lady (of sorts) from London, who prefers to travel alone (her partner is a very understanding and patient chap) and documents only the more humorous and bizarre aspects of her travel experiences. TLT, as she signs off as, describes herself as 'a lady of habit, a bit of a snob, amateur photographer, struggling blogger, wannabe wit and more a lover of travel rather than an authority on it'. From all her travels to date it is Italy that has enchanted her the most, and from all the cities in the country she has visited it is Turin she has fallen head over heals for, in particular for one special, symbolic building... 

To date, I have not seen any bears travelling on Turin's metro

Having had the privilege to travel all around Italy over the past decade, it is Turin that I find to be the quintessential Italian city. It has everything a tourist would look for in an Italian city; it's as historic and cultured as Rome, more romantic than Florence, more timeless in style than Milan and certainly a lot cleaner than Naples. It is the friendliest Italian region I have been to and has local cuisine to die for (I once had the most delicious Peidmont dish of Torino noodles, home grown leeks, Bra veal and locally sourced bacon in a lovely little eatery near Porta Susa. Thoroughly recommend!).