Italy

✔️ Via Po Portioes
✔️ Piazza Vittous - Veneto
✔️ Reggia di Venaria Reale
✔️ Cathedral di San Cecovanni Bathsta (shroud of turin)
✔️ Palazzo Carignato - unfinished ??
✔️ Parco Valentino, Fontana dei Misg, streetlamp lovers
✔️ Gran Macho di Dio
✔️ Asqui Terme

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Is a prominent city square in Turin, Italy. It houses several city landmarks, museums, theaters and cafes. The square is rectangular in shape and houses at its center the architectural complex of Palazzo Madama, while the perimeter is made up of elegant porticoes and facades of several city buildings. These are the Royal Armory (to the north ), the Teatro Regio (to the east), two stately buildings on the sides of Via Garibaldi, one of which houses the headquarters of the Piedmont Region (to the west), the Royal Church of San Lorenzo (to the north-west), the Subapline Gallery (to southeast), and the Torre Littoria (southwest). In the northwest the main square joins the smaller Piazzetta Reale, which houses Palazzo Chiablese, the Royal Palace of Turin, and pedestrian passage towards San Giovanni square and the (Turin Cathedral).[2] The square is located 239 meters above sea level.
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One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC. The city is situated on the Sesia River in the plain of the Po River between Milan and Turin. It is an important centre for the cultivation of rice and is surrounded by rice paddies, which are flooded in the summer.
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One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC. The city is situated on the Sesia River in the plain of the Po River between Milan and Turin. It is an important centre for the cultivation of rice and is surrounded by rice paddies, which are flooded in the summer.
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Opened in 1824 and housed in the austere Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze, this Turin institution houses the most important collection of Egyptian treasures outside Cairo. Among its many highlights are a statue of Ramses II (one of the world's most important pieces of Egyptian art) and a vast papyrus collection. There are also 500 funerary and domestic items from the tomb of royal architect Kha and his wife Merit, dating to 1400 BC and found in 1906.
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This sprawling flea market has brought street merchants to the north of Porta Palazzo since 1857. It's both fascinating and overwhelming, but can turn up some splendid vintage finds for the persistent and sharp of eye. The pace settles down come mid-afternoon and there are plenty of artfully dishevelled cafes and bars at which to grab a coffee or spritz.
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This sprawling flea market has brought street merchants to the north of Porta Palazzo since 1857. It's both fascinating and overwhelming, but A part-medieval, part-baroque castle built in the 13th century on the site of the old Roman gate, this palazzo is named after Madama Reale Maria Cristina, the widow of Vittorio Amedeo I (Duke of Savoy, 1630–37). Today, much of the building houses the expansive Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, which contains four floors of mostly decorative arts from medieval to the post-unification period, along with temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
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Statues of the mythical twins Castor and Pollux guard the entrance to this eye-catching palace and, according to local hearsay, also watch over the magical border between the sacred and diabolical halves of the city. Built for Carlo Emanuele II around 1646, its lavishly decorated rooms complete with jaw-dropping coffered ceilings house an assortment of furnishings, porcelain, and other finery. The Giardino Reale, north and east of the palace, was designed in 1697 by André Le Nôtre, who also created the gardens at Versailles.
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It’s all about the long walks in this glorious stretch of park straddling the banks of the mighty river, Po. Massive villas, grand residences, and the Castello del Valentino (another royal Savoy palace) are just some of the highlights here to explore, along with the Botanical Gardens, the Torino Esposizioni and Underground Pavilion Complex and the Borgo Medievale, an open-air museum mimicking the late-medieval architecture of the Piedmont region. As with any grand park in Italy, there’s also a rather opulent fountain in the form of the very striking Fontana dei 12 mesi (Fountain of the Months) which comes to life day and night with a dazzling waterworks show that spins off each of its allegorical marble statues.
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Vittorio Amedeo II's 1706 promise, to build a basilica to honour the Virgin Mary if Turin was saved from besieging French and Spanish armies, resulted in this wedding cake edifice, built on a hill across the Po river.
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This classic white-cube contemporary gallery space was created with Italian super curator Francesco Bonami and runs a great exhibition program showcasing outstandingly talented artists. Provocative thematic shows grapple with themes like globalisation, refugees, labour rights and other contemporary topics in surprising ways.
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This sprawling flea market has brought street merchants to the north of Porta Palazzo since 1857. It's both fascinating and overwhelming, but can turn up some splendid vintage finds for the persistent and sharp of eye. The pace settles down come mid-afternoon and there are plenty of artfully dishevelled cafes and bars at which to grab a coffee or spritz.
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The tall spire of Mole Antonelliana is the pinnacle of the Turin skyline and an iconic symbol of the city. It was built as a synagogue in 1848 when freedom of worship to non-Catholic religions was officially granted. Today it is the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Museum of Cinema).
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A vision in pink Candoglia marble, Milan's extravagant Gothic cathedral, 600 years in the making, aptly reflects the city's creativity and ambition. Its pearly white facade, adorned with 135 spires and 3400 statues, rises like the filigree of a fairy-tale tiara, wowing the crowds with its extravagant detail. The interior is no less impressive, punctuated by three enormous stained-glassed apse windows, while in the crypt saintly Carlo Borromeo is interred in a rock-crystal casket.
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Milan's most famous mural, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, is hidden away on a wall of the refectory adjoining the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie. Depicting Christ and his disciples at the dramatic moment when Christ reveals he's aware of his betrayal, it's a masterful psychological study and one of the world's most iconic images. You may very well kick yourself if you miss it, so book in advance or sign up for a guided city tour.
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Originally a Visconti fortress, this iconic red-brick castle was later home to the mighty Sforza dynasty, who ruled Renaissance Milan. The castle's defences were designed by the multitalented da Vinci; Napoleon later drained the moat and removed the drawbridges. Today, it houses seven specialised museums, which gather together intriguing fragments of Milan’s cultural and civic history, including Michelangelo’s final work, the Rondanini Pietà, now housed in the frescoed hall of the castle's Ospedale Spagnolo (Spanish Hospital).
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Situated behind Castello Sforzesco, Parco Sempione was once the preserve of hunting Sforza dukes. Then Napoleon came to town and set about landscaping. First the French carved out orchards; next they mooted the idea in 1891 of a vast public park. It was a resounding success, and today Milanese of all ages come to enjoy its winding paths and ornamental ponds. Giò Ponti's 1933 steel tower, built for a Triennale exhibition, provides a fantastic 108m-high viewing platform over the park.
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Located upstairs from one of Italy’s most prestigious art schools, this gallery houses Milan’s collection of Old Masters, much of it ‘lifted’ from Venice by Napoleon. Rubens, Goya and Van Dyck all have a place, but you're here for the Italians: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and the Bellini brothers. Much of the work has tremendous emotional clout, most notably Mantegna's brutal Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
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A stroll around the Quadrilatero d'Oro, the world's most famous shopping district, is a must even for those not sartorially inclined. The quaintly cobbled quadrangle of streets – loosely bound by Via Monte Napoleone, Via Sant'Andrea, Via Senato and Via Manzoni – have long been synonymous with elegance and money, and even if you don't have the slightest urge to sling a swag of glossy shopping bags, the window displays and people-watching are priceless.
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Milan’s most eccentric museum of 20th-century Italian painting is crowded in a 1930s apartment that still has the appearance of the haute-bourgeois home it once was. It’s a heady art hit, with Boccioni’s dynamic brushstrokes propelling painting towards futurism; the nostalgically metaphysical Campigli and de Chirico; and the restless, expressionist Informels all packed into small salons decked with suitably avant-garde furnishings.
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1. Duomo, Cathedral of Milano
2. Castello Sforzesco
3. Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
4. The Fashion District - Quadrilatero della Moda
5. Brera Art Gallery
6. Teatro alla Scala
7. Navigli (canals)
8. Porta Nuova and Corso Como
9. Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'
10. Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio
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Overlooking Piazza del Duomo, with fabulous views of the cathedral, is Mussolini's Arengario, from where he would harangue huge crowds in his heyday. Now it houses Milan's museum of 20th-century art. Built around a futuristic spiral ramp (an ode to the Guggenheim), the heady collection includes the likes of Boccioni, Campigli, Giorgio de Chirico and Marinetti.
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With a profusion of domes and more than 8000 sq metres of luminous mosaics, Venice's cathedral is unforgettable. It was founded in the 9th century to house the corpse of St Mark after wily Venetian merchants smuggled it out of Egypt in a barrel of pork fat. When the original building burnt down in 932 Venice rebuilt the basilica in its own cosmopolitan image, with Byzantine domes, a Greek cross layout and walls clad in marble from Syria, Egypt and Palestine.
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Napoleon pulled down an ancient church to build his royal digs over Piazza San Marco, and then filled them with the riches of the doges while taking some of Venice's finest heirlooms to France as trophies. When he lost Venice to the Austrians, Empress Sissi remodelled the palace, adding ceiling frescoes, silk cladding and brocade curtains. It's now open to the public and full of many of Venice's reclaimed treasures, including ancient maps, statues, cameos and four centuries of artistic masterpieces.
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Holding pride of place on the waterfront, this pretty Gothic confection may be an unlikely setting for the political and administrative seat of a great republic, but it's an exquisitely Venetian one. Beyond its dainty colonnades and geometrically patterned facade of white Istrian stone and pale pink Veronese marble lie grand rooms of state, the doge's private apartments and a large complex of council chambers, courts and prisons.
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Venice's historic gallery traces the development of Venetian art from the 14th to 19th centuries, with works by all of the city's artistic superstars. The complex housing the collection maintained its serene composure for centuries until Napoleon installed his haul of art trophies here in 1807 – looted from various religious institutions around town. Since then there’s been nonstop visual drama on its walls. Note that the gallery is in the midst of a major refurbishment; some rooms may be closed.
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Burano, with its cheery pastel-coloured houses, is renowned for its handmade lace, which once graced the decolletage and ruffs of European aristocracy. These days, with a couple of notable exceptions, much of the lace sold in local shops is imported. Still, tourists head here in droves to snap photos of the brightly painted houses reflecting in the canals – clogging up the bridges and driving the locals to distraction in the process. It's a much more peaceful place in the evening.
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Murano has been the home of Venetian glass-making since the 13th century. Today, artisans continue to ply their trade at workshops dotted around the island. To learn about local manufacturing traditions and view a collection of historic glass, visit the Museo del Vetro.
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