Laura Gascoigne

Pizza, choc-ice and Leonardos – the treasures of Turin

Italy's car capital is also now home to a 55,000 sq m cultural gem, the magnificent Polo Reale

‘Self-portrait’, c.1513, by Leonardo da Vinci [under licence from italian ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali de del turismo] 
issue 06 September 2014

To most non-Italians Turin spells Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Fiat). But this subalpine city has a longer history than the internal combustion engine. It may be twinned with Detroit, but its cavalcade of equestrian monuments testifies to an older sort of horsepower — the sort harnessed by the condottieri of the House of Savoy to turn their little Duchy into a major player on the European stage and, for four brief years from 1861 to 1865, into the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

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