THE URBAN GIRO

TURIN

MAY 8

The grande partenza takes place in Turin for the third time and, as on the two previous occasions, the coming of the Giro d’Italia doubles as a commemoration of the unification of Italy. Having already marked the centenary in 1961 and the 150th anniversary in 2011, the Giro returns to the city that served as Italy’s first capital after it was unified under the House of Savoy in 1861.

Four years later, the seat of government moved on to Florence, but Turin’s grand palaces, sweeping boulevards and elegant porticos still hint at its former status. Even though Rome and Milan are Italy’s political and economic capitals respectively, Turin has remained a centre of industry, culture and learning, wielding its own degree of influence over the country at large.

Turin’s car factories were at the heart of Italy’s economic miracle of the post-war years, drawing thousands of migrants from the rural south into the city. The Agnelli family, controllers of Fiat, Juventus and La Stampa, bestrode Turin, but it was not only a manufacturing capital. Umberto Eco and Claudio Magris were among a generation of students developing their ideas in the cafes of Via Po, while the Einaudi publishing house was emblematic of Turin’s impact on Italian literary culture. In the 1940s and 50s, the editorial staff alone included authors of the renown of Italo Calvino, Cesare Pavese and Natalia Ginzburg.

If Milan’s institutions, from to the Vigorelli, made it Italian cycling’s de facto capital city, Turin also had a proud heritage in the sport, though much of it has been neglected over the years. Piedmont no longer produces bike riders with the same frequency as before, competed fiercely with for scoops, but the space it devotes to cycling has shrunk considerably in the 21st century.