Best Western Hotel Genio: here the centre of Turin
On leaving the hotel, cross Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and head for Via Roma. After five hundred metres you reach the first wonderful Baroque scene of the eighteenth-century Piazza San Carlo, with its equestrian statue of Emanuele Filiberto, the first Duke of Savoy, who chose the city of Turin as the capital of his state, transferring it from Chambery.
A further ten minutes under the porticos of Via Roma brings you to Piazza Castello, centre of government in the two-thousand year history of the city. Palazzo Madama is in the centre of the square with Palazzo Reale in the background, surrounded by seventeenth and eighteenth-century buildings: Palazzo del Governo, the Royal Armoury (Armeria Reale), the Teatro Regio (theatre), Guarini's Church of San Lorenzo, and behind Palazzo Reale the fifteenth-century cathedral (Duomo) with the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, the Roman Theatre and the Palatine Gates, the most notable legacy of the Roman era.
One after the other, the museums: the Egyptian Museum, the Museum of Film (Museo del Cinema), the Royal Armoury (Armeria Reale), the Royal Library (Biblioteca Reale), the sumptuous apartments of Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Carignano, the Sabauda Gallery (Galleria Sabauda), Palazzo Madama, the Museum of Antique Art (Museo d'Arte Antica).
Next to the "Palazzi del Potere", today museums, are the splendid Baroque churches of San Filippo, San Lorenzo, Santa Cristina, San Carlo. Then there are other places of worship such as the "Chiesa della Consolata" and the "Basilica di Maria Ausiliatrice" from where the works of San Giovanni Bosco radiated out to every continent.
Other major museums are also easily reached: the Gallery of Modern Art (Galleria d'Arte Moderna), the "Fondazione Accorsi", Palazzo Bricherasio.
We can supply full details for such itineraries and for various periods or seasons we can suggest "tourist packages". We can provide addresses and make bookings for enoteche (specialist wine-tasting stores), prestigious wine producers and local restaurants.
While Turin is now recognised as a tourist destination of international reputation, Piedmont, the region of which Turin is the political and administrative capital, is an area offering many stunning itineraries. Following these routes, there is the chance to visit historical sites and countryside of great beauty, as well as to be reminded of the excellent and prize-winning wine production and gastronomy.
Favoured destinations for holidaying in the region are the Langhe (the area around Cuneo and Alba), Monferrato (the areas of Asti and Alessandria), the Canavese (the area of the province of Turin between the Plateau of Padania, the Graie Alps and the Valle d'Aosta.