Before visiting Turin’s wonderful Royal Gardens, read author Giuseppe Culicchia’s short description: “The Royal Gardens are right in the city center, behind Piazza Castello. Surrounded by 17th-century bastions, they were redesigned by André le Nôtre, a superstar of garden architects in the 1600s, for Vittorio Amedeo II.”

“In recent years, the Royal Gardens have hosted under their oaks and chestnut trees a variety of summer events having to do with music, cinema, or both” (translated from “Torino è casa mia”, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2009). This major green area in the city was actually inspired by the park around the Palace of Versailles, and was first conceived in the second half of the 16th century, when it was originally built by Emanuel Filibert of Savoy upon moving the capital city of his duchy from Chambéry to Turin.