In Piemonte - Piemonte Feel

Green hills and vineyards that are easy on the eye, cities that are outdoor museums and historical meeting places are all distinguishing marks of the Italian landscape. The tradition of historical meeting places, particularly in Piemonte, is demonstrated by the presence of places that narrate – to this day - the very special understatement that portrays this region and its inhabitants. Those who visit Piemonte can indeed map out an itinerary of historical meeting places to see in various cities much like the way one would do when playing a board game. “Places from the Past”, for many years were centres of culture, historic meeting places that were also art salons and environments in which political ideas and civil passions took shape. Sitting in front of a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of vermouth, intellectuals and the most prominent characters of Italian and Piedmontese politics met. Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, after having rejected Austria’s ultimatum and uttered the proud War Proclamation declared: “Today we have made history…now let’s go to dinner”. Every deputy and minister of the Kingdom of Italy, united at Palazzo Carignano, agreed to seal the important decision at the tables of Cambio, the famous restaurant in Piazza Carignano that celebrated its 250th birthday last year in Torino.
Besides Cambio, the city of the “Mole” boasts many shops with antique atmosphere such as the Caffè Baratti & Milano, whose history summarises the evolution of this city at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the Algostino de Michelis pharmacy in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, open since 1825, or the Stratta confectioner’s shop in Piazza San Carlo that Renzo Arbore, an enthusiastic collector of boxes stuffed with coloured sugar tablets, loves so much.
But authentic fragments of Italian history can be found pretty much anywhere. All one has to do is think of Caffè Converso at Bra, an ancient confectioner’s shop founded in 1838, frequented by Umberto di Savoia and – later on - by a camerata of writers that included Giovanni Arpino and Beppe Fenoglio. The Caffè Barbero in Cherasco, inaugurated in 1881 in pure Liberty Style; the Caffè Calissano, in the heart of Alba in the Piazza del Duomo that witnessed the arrival of artists from Cesare Pavese to painter-pharmacist Pinot Gallizio. Under the arcades of Cuneo, near the Teatro Toselli the Caffè Bruno can be seen. This cafè was founded by express desire of the Swiss family Raiter, one of the few meeting places attended by the poor. Here they could purchase crumbled “paste di meliga” (cornmeal cookies) at a reduced price.