What could taste better than white truffles or gianduja chocolates? Both are specialties of Turin, an elegant baroque city, the first capital of a unified Italy, consistently overlooked by tourists. Its center has narrow streets opening onto beautiful squares. It has become Italy’s contemporary, conceptual art center with museums and galleries devoted to the latest in Italian art, while not neglecting Renaissance painting and sculpture.

Turin — Torino in Italian — derives its name from the Celtic word “tau,” meaning mountain. It lies at the foot of the Italian Alps, and on sunny days the snow-capped mountains provide a sparkling backdrop to the city. Turin was known for most of the 20th century as an industrial city, thanks to Giovanni Agnelli’s Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino).