City Guide: Turin

     Turin is a city undergoing constant change.

     The 2006 Winter Olympics brought changes to Turin making it more than an industrial city, but a re-emerging cultural center. A host of Olympic-orientated innovations transformed Turin into an elegant destination for chic vacations.

     Booked.net can make your stay in Turin very comfortable if you browse our comprehensive list of Turin hotels. Here you can find a hotel to suite your budget from cheap hotels in Turin to those packed with luxuries. Check out them all offered with maps, photos and secure forms.

     Turin will greet you with baroque architecture, art nouveau cafés and rich museum collections, but everything takes a back seat before the symbol of this city - the Mole Antonelliana. This is a beautiful church, but it retains more than architecture, but the main draw for all pilgrims and the most controversial historical artifact - the Holy Shroud of Turin. It is believed that Christ's body was wrapped with it after the crucifixion.

Other attractions include;

- The National Cinema Museum covers 3,200sqm of art exhibits

- Valentino Park, the biggest park in Turin situated along the Po River

- Cathedral of Superga, built in thanksgiving for a battle against French

- Museo dell'Automobile houses over 170 vehicles from the 18th century cars to Formula 1 racers

     Sight-goers have much to do in Turin, but some tourists avoid the guided tours of the city, but come for local cuisine such as Lavazza coffee, Gianduja – chocolate, and Vermouth.

     Turin wasn't always attractive tourist destination, but small Romanian settlement with only 5000 inhabitants in the 1st century BC. By the end of the 13th century Turin’s population swelled to 20,000 residents and it became the most influential city of the country. In the 15th century the cityscape was changed by the construction of a university, palaces and gardens and in 1871 the Fréjus Tunnel reshaped the city toward an important transportation hub. After, the city became a focus for immigrants and its population increased to 1.5 million by 1975.

     Today Turin is a big city with more than one million residents and situated on the River Po north from Italy at alpine background. This area has not remained constant through the years but pioneered a host of changes from cobbled streets to highways and baroque relics toward contemporary arts. ''New Turin'' can be captured only on your trip there with Booked.net.