Prologue—Turin: Your Makeshift Home

So here you are—you didn’t choose Rome, the legendary center of an empire, and you didn’t choose Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, and you didn’t even choose Milan, the posh (and sprawling) fashion capital of the world.

You chose Turin:

Turin, the first capital of united Italy, the home of Fiat, Nutella, and one of the best Egyptian museums in the world.

Turin, the capital of Piedmont, the city built around River Po, Italy’s largest river, the city that hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Turin, two hours from the Mediterranean, two hours from the Alps.

Turin, the city home to intellectual giant Primo Levi, a city that Nitchze once lived in, that Herman Melville visited, that Mark Twain visited.

Turin is the place to go if you came to Italy to get to know Italia. It’s the city to live in if you don’t want to run into another American on every other block. It’s the city to come to if you want to take home a piece of a different culture back home—a piece that will change you.

This is your new home, for however long you’re staying. We’re going to take a journey through the city—to museums, piazzas, restaurants—so you don’t go back home without getting to know your town. One of Turin’s main attractions is its near-perfect location for traveling to other parts of Europe—trains and planes, they’re all close by—but don’t let Turin’s location fool you into thinking it isn’t a mysterious and magnificent city in itself. Find your feet; then it’s OK to frolic about in other countries. More than anything else, I urge you to do things that you can’t do in the States. This is Italia.

Here we go.