Turin

From Imakoopedia

Turin (Italian: Torino), a large city of about one million inhabitants, is set in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, a one-hour drive from the French border and slightly more than that from the Mediterranean sea.

Table of contents

1 Understand 2 Get in 3 See 4 Do

Understand

Turin was the first capital of modern Italy, and is the host of the upcoming 2006 Winter Olympic Games. While it's not a famous cultural city like Florence or Rome, the setting is pleasant, with the Po River flowing through the city, and the Italian Alps off in the distance.

Turin is an important city of technology and industry, and the FIAT automobile company is based here. (The 'T' in the name stands for Torino).

Get in

See

Turin's main attractions include important baroque palaces and churches, a regular and attractive street grid, an extensive network of arcades, famous coffeeshops and a number of world-renowned museums.

• The Mole is Turin's landmark building.
• Museo dell'Automobile (aka "Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia", Biscaretti for short), Corso Unità d’Italia 40. Some may place this above the Uffizi as a showcase of Italian art. The collection houses over 170 vehicles, from 18th-century carriages to Formula 1 racers, and lots of gorgeous red sports cars. http://www.museoauto.org
• The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist (Duomo di San Giovanni). The Cathedral's Chapel of the Shroud houses the controversial Shroud of Turin, or occasionally an "exact replica" on those occasions when the real thing is off in some laboratory for carbon-dating. As can be expected, the exhibit descriptions leave little room for skepticism.

Do

• 2006 Winter Olympics. http://www.torino2006.org/