Torino is where I studied during my university years, met my wife, and spent eight years living in.

It was the first capital of Italy and the country owes a lot to it:

In 1861, Turin became the capital of the newly proclaimed united Kingdom of Italy, having been the political and intellectual centre of the Risorgimento movement. ¹

It’s a city full of history and beauties:

There’s a whiff of Paris in Turin’s elegant tree-lined boulevards and echoes of Vienna in its stately art-nouveau cafes, but make no mistake – this elegant, Alp-fringed city is utterly self-possessed. The industrious Torinese gave the world its first saleable hard chocolate and Italy’s most iconic car, the Fiat. ²

It is surrounded on the western and northern front by the Alps, and you can easily spot the distinctive pyramidal peak of Monviso.