TURIN

Shaped by Italy's ruling House of Savoy, synonymous with the car manufacturer Fiat and the centre of the influential Arte Povera movement, Turin is a city with many strings to its bow. While you can easily whiz around the erstwhile royal city riding its excellent tram and metro network, nothing quite beats wandering about Turin's historic districts where its grid-plan streets are lined with Liberty-style facades, sumptuous palaces and vast squares bordered by arcades.

As the court of the dukes of Savoy for 300 years, the first capital of unified Italy in the 1860s and the capital of Piedmont today, Turin boasts a rich religious and cultural heritage. The Reale, Madama and Carignano palazzi are former residences since converted into national museums that are well worth a visit. But that's not all: Turin is in fact home to almost 40 museums, including several internationally renowned institutions such as the Egyptian Museum, the National Museum of Cinema and the MAUTO, Turin's automobile museum.

Nestled at the foot of the Alps, Turin is a treat for the eyes, and for the taste buds, too. Work up an appetite at the vast Mercato di Porta Palazzo, a huge indoor and outdoor market, inhaling the tantalising aromas before feasting on Piedmont delicacies such as Alba white truffles, vitello tonnato, grissini, gianduia, bicerin… Italy's "food capital" boasts too many restaurants and trattorie to mention, with countless specialities to boot. Continue your epicurean tour of Turin into the early evening when the Torinese love to gather over a glass of vermouth for the traditional aperitivo, a pre-dinner ritual.

Turin is a city that appreciates the finer things in life, but it's also one of Italy's main economic hubs. After the euphoria of the industrial revolution, the automobile crisis dealt a devastating blow to the region, whereupon the Piedmont capital had to reinvent itself. The 2006 Olympic Winter Games turbocharged the city's transformation and ushered in an exciting era of tourism and culture. Turin said arrivederci to its industrial wastelands and received a major makeover, led by world-leading architects, the likes of Gae Aulenti, Norman Foster and Mario Botta, not to mention Renzo Piano who breathed new life into the Lingotto complex, the former Fiat factory. This history-steeped site is now home to the Pinacoteca Agnelli art gallery. You can also see the original test track on the roof of the building, an enduring symbol of the city's prosperous industrial past!