Literary Turin

This is the historic seat of the University of Turin, commissioned by Vittorio Amedeo II and built between 1713 and 1720. Michelangelo Garove drew up the original design, on which Giovanni Antonio Ricca and Filippo Juvarra later intervened. Over the centuries, the University has trained generations of scientists, writers and intellectuals. The interior rooms, on the other hand, house the offices and activities of the University.

It was called the «caffè dei codini» (the pigtails café), after the hairstyles and traditional dress of its patrons, but also the «caffè dei Machiavelli», for its political discussions. Initially tied to aristocratic and conservative circles, it later became a meeting place for intellectuals and leading figures of the Risorgimento, among them Cavour, Rattazzi and Massimo d'Azeglio.

There is also a more indulgent reason to go in: the ice-cream parlour, known above all for its gianduia ice cream, a speciality of the Turin tradition.

Primo Levi too left a trace of Fiorio in literature. He recalls it in a page devoted to his ancestors, through a small episode of family life in the Turin of days gone by. We like this reference because, alongside the great names of politics and the Risorgimento, it gives the café back a more everyday dimension: that of a place that enters family memories and ends up, years later, in a book.

Carlo Alberto wanted the library in order to rebuild and expand the book collections of the House of Savoy; Pelagio Palagi fitted out its premises between 1837 and 1842. It holds ancient books, manuscripts, maps and drawings of great historical and artistic interest. Among them are works by Leonardo da Vinci, such as the Codex on the Flight of Birds and the drawing known as the Self-Portrait. The originals, however, for conservation reasons are displayed only on special occasions.

The Torino opened in 1903 near the church of San Carlo. In 1934, during the transformation of via Roma, it moved under these arcades of piazza San Carlo.

Inside, marbles, mirrors, fireplaces, gilded stuccoes and large chandeliers recall the taste of the Piedmontese Baroque. It is in these rooms that the café became one of the meeting places of twentieth-century Turin society.

Among the regulars of Caffè Torino, Cesare Pavese and Giulio Einaudi are remembered, together with a political figure such as Alcide De Gasperi.

For those following the literary traces of Turin, the date of the current premises, 1934, also matters: it belongs precisely to the years in which Pavese was active as a writer, translator and collaborator of the Einaudi publishing house. The café is one of the public spaces linked to his life in Turin, outside the places more directly associated with his literary work.

Pavese spent most of his life in Turin, working as a translator, writer and collaborator of the Einaudi publishing house. The city returns in his poems, short stories, novels and in the pages of his diary Il mestiere di vivere. The hotel is still in business, under the name Hotel Roma e Rocca Cavour: this is a stop to see from the square, out of respect for those staying there.

The story began in 1870 with the Principe Umberto liqueur shop, later taken over by the brothers Ernesto and Pietro Platti. Over time the café became one of the meeting places of Turin's cultural life.

The pastry shop also has a speciality of its own: the Torta Platti chocolate cake, made to a recipe the house keeps secret.

Platti was also an address of literary and publishing Turin. Its regulars included Cesare Pavese and Giulio Einaudi, two names linked to the city's cultural life in the twentieth century.

The sources we consulted record no specific meetings or publishing decisions documented inside the café. What remains is the connection with writers and publishers who also frequented these public spaces, away from the publishing houses and the cultural institutions. One more reason to stop at Platti, with no need to attribute to its tables episodes we know nothing about.

In the 1920s Pavese studied here with Augusto Monti, his Italian and Latin teacher and a point of reference for young people who would go on to play a significant role in Turin's culture and anti-fascism. Primo Levi attended the liceo from the 1930s, before his university studies in chemistry. The building, nineteenth-century in origin, is still a school: the classrooms are not normally accessible, but the façade alone links the stories of the two writers.

Born in Santo Stefano Belbo in 1908, Pavese lived most of his life in Turin, while keeping a deep bond with the Langhe, which often return in his novels and short stories. During his Turin years he worked as a writer, translator and intellectual, collaborated intensively with the Einaudi publishing house and published works such as Paesi tuoi, La casa in collina and La luna e i falò. The plaque gives a concrete address to all those years of work.

A chemist, for many years he combined industrial work with writing: Se questo è un uomo, Il sistema periodico and La chiave a stella are among his works. Turin, with its streets, districts and world of work, appears in his short stories and autobiographical writings. To the house he dedicated the text Corso Re Umberto 75, collected in L'altrui mestiere. The building is private and is viewed from the outside.