Turin: devil's city

Enjoy this very interesting guest post by Mari Biella, an author and blogger. She has been writing from an early age, and her mother still has some highly embarrassing poems and stories to prove it. Her published works are The Quickening a psychological ghost story set in the Victorian Age, and Loving Imogen a collection consisting of a novella and three short stories. A free short story, The Song of the Sea, may be downloaded from her website.

Mari was born and raised in Britain, but currently lives in Northern Italy. She’ll read just about anything she can get her hands on, but particularly enjoys literary fiction, psychological horror, and crime fiction. In her free time she enjoys travelling and exploring Europe’s lesser-known corners. 

Rebekka's slow fashion in Turin

Right in downtown Turin, inside a courtyard, there is a shop where you can find Rebekka, a quite unique fashion line made of eclectic patterns and styles. Olivia Magee is the Irish owner who has been calling Turin her home since 1990s.  

Originally from Cavan County in Ulster, Olivia left the emerald island to come to Italy and learn Italian; without knowing much and following a friend's recommendation, she ended up in Turin, and the city has slowly grown on her for its atmosphere, architecture and long avenues.

At the end of her first year as an au pair in Turin, Olivia decided to stay and took a job in one of Piazza Vittorio bars and right there she met Mario, her husband and her best friends.

When talking about Italian fashion, Milan and Florence come up right away, yet the very first fashion show in Italy took place in Turin, where a long sartorial tradition and sense of fashion has always been in the DNA of the locals. If the Italian silk hub is on the Como Lake, the cashmere one is in Biella, one of Piedmont provinces. As for the Turin area, Chieri has the textile hub since the middle ages with its wool, cotton and hemp fabric production. By the 15th century a moleskin guild was established to guarantee the quality of its production. 

Olivia's husband Mario has worked in the textile industry all his life; his grandfather had a loom and Olivia has always been totally fascinated by it and by the swarming creativity of Turin and Chieri so tied to the fashion world and the famous brands.

Fashion though wasn't in Olivia's plans for a while, in fact, after getting married and having three kids, she was an ESL teacher. In 2014 though she manifested her wish to work in fashion and decided to collaborate with a stylist friend of hers.

Pepino's pinguino gelato

Add the royal seal in the logo signaled Pepino as a gelato royal supplier

Turin: hidden treasure

Enjoy this guest post by Tom from Bristol (UK) co-author of There's treasure everywhere a very interesting and rich website about art, travel, books, movies and food. This website aims to be a place where you can read about the hidden gems that make your life better. 

Thanks to this trip to Turin, there is now a travel section on his website and more people can be introduced to this wonderful city!

Turin is a hidden treasure

Our decision to visit Turin was made without a great deal of research. We wanted to visit a city that was near mountains. One that would be interesting but with plenty of scope for relaxing, oh and some nice food and wine would be great as well. 

Nestled in the foot of the Alps, the location was as expected perfect. What we didn’t realise though was how beautiful, stimulating and downright delicious the city would be.