Torino, the first capital of united Italy, is an ancient city. Each moment in history has left its mark, generating a legacy of culture, architecture and arts.

In 2012, the New York Times devoted to Torino one of its 36 hours in… pieces, while in 2015, The Guardian published The alternative city guide to Turin: 

The 2006 Olympic Winter Games showed the world a surprising city, still attached to its industrial path while transforming into a hub of innovation, culture and high quality of life.

World-renowned Juventus football club – one of Torino’s glories – has its brand-new Stadium in town, alongside the world’s second-largest Egyptian antiques museum after Cairo (Museo Egizio), the Automobile Museum, the Cinema Museum (few know that in the early days cinema was being developed here), and the Mountain Museum (Museo Nazionale della Montagna), aptly located on Torino’s hills overlooking the Alps.

The UN System has its Staff College here (UNSSC), together with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO). UNESCO has recently approved the creation of a centre for research on world cultural heritage to be based in the baroque Venaria Reale palace.

Torino is also an easy city to visit and love, thanks to its rational design. It is impossible to get lost and every season brings its unique atmospheres, best appreciated walking along the streets, into the many museums and parks, and sampling the myriad cafés and restaurants.

Enjoying good food and drink is a cultural must in Torino. The informal trattoria, the refined top-end restaurants and the exotic ethnic eateries make the city one of the undisputed world capitals of taste. As capital of the Piemonte (Piedmont) region, Torino has no shortage of world-famous wines, whether one is looking for whites (Gavi, Arneis, Moscato), superb reds (Dolcetto, Grignolino, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and Barolo), or sparkling wines, which, through Martini & Rossi, gave rise to the tradition of Asti Spumante.

Seemingly closer to the Northern European no-nonsense, hard-working style than it is to Italy’s Mediterranean allure, Torino transforms at sunset: by aperitif time the streets are lit up and buzzing with people enjoying live jazz, exclusive dj sets, the local philharmonic orchestra performances, theatre and opera, but also shows, cabaret, literary cafes, street festivals and “notti bianche”, all night non-stop events that animate the city streets until dawn.