Infrastructures Infrastructures
We often hear words like wireless, broadband, digital divide, Voiceover IP or satellite systems. This may make us feel as if we need a compass not to get disoriented in these new dimensions of space and time in this digital age. Often it is enough to own the latest-generation cellular phone or super-light laptop computer for us to feel as if we have the keys to the innumerable gateways giving us access to modernity. However, Piedmont gives us much more than a cell phone.
It is a region that is at the avant-garde in all it complexity. It is committed to offering innovative products and services to its citizens, companies, and local agencies. There are numerous projects for developing so-called e-government with the use of Internet and public portals: one example of the pride of Piedmont’s planning capability is Wi-Pie. This is a riot of bits, so to speak, for improving everyone’s quality of life. The consortium Torino Time is playing a leading role in the new strategy of global communication. It has been chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the provider of the Precise Timing Facility (PTF) for European satellite systems. Set to go into operation in 2008, Galileo will be the first worldwide satellite navigational system for civilian use. It will be open to international cooperation and commercial use. Torino Time will have the task of synchronising the land systems now existing in the various countries by elaborating a protocol for the certification and measurement of the “absolute time.” All in all, Piedmont gives time to space!
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Places
La “Bollente” di Acqui Terme
This is an elegant, octagonal temple-structure inaugurated in 1879. This eclectic structure has a spring where sulfuric-salty-bromine-iodic water flows at a temperature of 74.5 degrees Celsius.
Castello di Aglič
This sumptuous home was built, beginning in 1646 following a design by Amedeo di Castellamonte, by Filippo d’Aglie, statesman, literary man, choreographer, and adviser to Madama Reale, on the ruins of an ancient fortress.
Forte di Fenestrelle
The largest fortified structure in Europe and the longest wall-structure in the world after the Great Wall of China: a 635-meter inclination, 3 km long, 1,300,000 square meters large, 4,000 steps in the Scala Coperta (Covered Staircase), 2,500 steps in the Scala Reale (Royal Staircase), 5 drawbridges, and 183 lights to illuminate the interior.
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People
Umberto Eco
"Without Italy, Torino would be more or less the same. But, without Torino, Italy would be very different."
Africa Unite
"Africa United is not deeply Torinese. Bunna and I are from the province of Piemonte and we’re critical toward the so-called ‘Savoy pride’, but it’s a fact that we have experienced Torino’s turmoil."
Patty Smith
"Torino is a distinct city, with a lot of character. It’s not like Firenze or other Italian cities that overwhelm you, where you’re overcome by tourists. It is a city that has a very precise personality, a style, a soul."
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