A piazza wide garden

Despite its very long industrial tradition, like Lady Gaga and Rihanna, Turin has known how to change and renovate herself along the years. Many areas of the city have changed completely in the last 30 years, starting from downtown, the Lingotto area where  you can now visit Eataly - the very first one in the world! - and the Fiat factory turned into a shopping mall, to Piazza Risorgimento in the Campidoglio neighborhood.

We often describe Turin like the Italian MoTown thanks to the Fiat, but also as the Italian Philly because of its elegant 18th century architecture and most definitely, like the Italian Manhattan given the Roman grid our city was built on. Like many cities around the world though, Turin has also many artsy projects and neighborhoods that keep outside of the tourists' paths.

The Campidoglio neighborhood is one of these 'only local' areas buzzing with creativity and activities and for the 6th edition of Turin Epicurean Capital we wanted to provide an elegant excuse to visit this corner of Turin to share with our guests what the real Turin is like.

                       

First of all, this is the location of MAU  - the urban art museum: an outdoor contemporary art museum that spreads its 147 colorful murales on the façades of many buildings along the streets of the hood.

And then of course, there is the piazza, the core of the hood, the microcosm of the city and the whole country. Piazza Risorgimento used to be a playground up to the 1990s, then it went through different metamorphoses and, after becoming the first smart piazza, in Italy in 2016, it is now a very green urban garden, thanks to the association Orti In Piazza or vegetable gardens in the piazza.

This urban garden counts 25 plots of 2.3 sqm/yd wide and the association provides the soil, the irrigation system, the gardening tools and the supervision of a horticulturist tutor.

Orti in Piazza organizes many events to involve the neighborhood residents and the schools, in fact, one plot is currently being cultivated by the kids of the hood public kindergarten - yes, in the Slow Food land, we are very big on seasonal and local food education 😉

As this public garden also has a bocce court, it goes without saying that, after the many bbqs, cooking classes, cleaning and painting sessions, the association members relax with a fun bocce game!

Barbara on the left and Giuliana on the right

Giuliana Dorrucci

Special thanks to Giuliana Dorrucci for introducing Turin Epicurean Capital to this Turin's initiative and welcoming our guests to get a real feel of this neighborhood and our city.

Giuliana is an architect with many interests. She's a native of Rome and worked in Sweden after completing her degree in architecture. In her free time, she sings in a choir, hikes in the mountains and loves taking care of her plot with her friend Barbara. Her green heart is very committed to the Orti in Piazza's projects.

On Wed, June 26th 2019, Giuliana and the head of the association will show the TurinEpi19 guests the plots and how the residents take advantage of such a beautiful piazza.

Then, our friend and artist, Grazia Mondo will teach the TurinEpi19 cooking class, getting everybody at work: kneading, mixing and folding in 💪 to prepare our delicious dinner 😋

An architect by profession, Grazia has a very creative soul and is now making jewelry, bags and taking classes to refine her artisan techniques. Given her passion for gardening and cooking, we absolutely had to involve her in this 6th edition 🙆

Mark this unique corner of Turin down and come visit the piazza Risorgimento. You can easily reach it from Piazza Statuto, walking through the Art Nouveau palazzos of Cit Turin. Or with a 10min subway ride from the Porta Nuova station to the Bernini one + a 5 minute walk.

See you all in piazza among the plots, amici!