It was the year 1878 when Mark Twain, the American writer known for the beautiful novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, set off for Turin.
Immediately he fell in love with the Savoy city, so much so that, full of enthusiasm, he wrote: "Turin is a beautiful city: its spaciousness exceeds, I think, everything that has ever been conceived before... Its streets are extraordinarily wide, the paved squares prodigious, the houses are huge and well-built, gathered in uniform blocks that run in the distance as straight as an arrow. The sidewalks are almost as wide as ordinary streets in Europe, and are covered by a double porch supported by columns and large pillars of stone. One walks along these spacious and always sheltered streets, and along way passes by the most gracious shops and the most inviting restaurants".
The American writer was born in Missouri and, like the characters in many of his novels, had lived on the Mississippi, enjoying beautiful views. Yet, Twain wrote about Turin: "In the evening when it is lit up with gas and populated by a multitude of people who want to have fun strolling, chatting, laughing, it is a spectacle worth seeing."
From this first journey, Turin became one of his most favourite cities.
