Friday, May 8 - Genoa

Morning - mini bus transfer from Milan (Malpensa) airport and arrivals at the Hotel Bristol Palace

4:00 pm Beginning of activities

Walk on Via Garibaldi
Strada Nuova, today known as Via Garibaldi, is located between piazza Fontane Marose and piazza della Meridiana. Around 1550, the city's Commune began work on the project by dividing the land into nine lots which were to be assigned through four public auctions. With the earnings from these sales, the Commune was able to finance a number of important works in the city: the construction of the cathedral's dome, the new pier, and the production of a precious sacred ornament: a processional case containing the Corpus Domini. In 1882, Strada Nuova became known as Via Garibaldi. The street was lined with buildings of rare splendor for their majestic atriums, staircases, courtyards, rooms, frescoes and stuccoes, along with roof gardens that allowed one to be in tune with nature while in the heart of the city.

The great Genoese noble families (including the Spinola, Lomellini, and Grimaldi families) made this street into their own residential neighborhood. The new, magnificent and elegant street constituted a status symbol for the richest and most powerful families of the Genoese oligarchy, while simultaneously offering all of Europe an example of a new, grandiose kind of residence. The Strada Nuova has charmed visitors and scholars at various times in history, noted among these is Peter Paul Rubens, who went to Genoa on several occasions during the early 1600s. A 1622 volume about Via Garibaldi, written and illustrated by Rubens, was published in Antwerp and spread the magnificent street's fame throughout the world.

Private visit to Palazzo Lomellino received by Conte Bruzzo
Built in 1563 for Nicolosio Lomellino, this superb palazzo on Strada Nuova was designed by Giovanni Battista Castello il Bergamasco and Bernardo Cantone, and introduces some bold innovations such as the stucco decoration on the façade and the oval-shaped vestibule. The U-shaped layout is linked to the hill behind via the vestibule, courtyard, grotto and garden. The interior decoration includes frescoes by Giacomo Antonio Boni, Domenico Parodi and Lorenzo De Ferrari. One section of the palazzo now houses a library and the rooms of the Garden Club.

Dinner at Circolo del Tunnel
Since 1930, the piano nobile of Palazzo Spinola has housed the "Circolo artistico del tunnel." The "habitués" of the library, bar, dining-rooms and lounges of the most exclusive club in Genoa pass pleasant hours in the luxurious atmosphere of a former noble-residence, while admiring the late-16th-century frescos painted by Andrea Semino and of the two most skilled artists of the new generation: Bernardo Castello and Lazzaro Tavarone.

Saturday, May 9 - Genoa/Bogliasco

Visit to San Giovanni di Prè
This Romanesque-Gothic church from the 12th century was altered several times before being restored in 1870.

Visit to the Church of San Donato
The 12th century church of San Donato houses a triptych by Joos van Cleve (1485).

Visit to the Church of Sant'Agostino
The Gothic church of Sant'Agostino has a bell tower made of majolica. Its triangular cloisters have been converted into the Museo Sant’Agostino containing sculptures and architectural items salvaged from demolished churches. One of the finest works is the fragment of the tomb (1312) of Margherita of Barbant, wife of Henry VII, sculpted by Giovanni Pisano. Sculptures also by Gagini, Parodi, and Canova.

Visit to several of Genoa's historic shops
Among the stops will be Romanengo's, a sweet shop that is over two hundred years old famous for its marrons glacés, and Luigi Codevilla, an exclusive jewelry store with reproductions of 17th century Genoese silver.

Lunch under own arrangements

Afternoon - depart for the Bogliasco Foundation's Liguria Study Center
Depart for Bogliasco, a small village on the Mediterranean 15 minutes outside Genoa, for an afternoon and evening at the Liguria Study Center. We will begin our afternoon with a lecture by a Bogliasco Fellow at the Study Center's conference facilities, set into a cliff with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea.

Cocktails and Dinner at the Liguria Study Center in Bogliasco
Following the lecture, guests will have the opportunity to stroll through the Study Center's historic gardens, and then enjoy cocktails and a festive dinner with Bogliasco Fellows in residence at the Study Center's Villa dei Pini.

Sunday, May 10 - Genoa

Visit to Palazzo Bianco
Palazzo Bianco is considered the oldest and at the same time the most recent of the sumptuous buildings along Via Garibaldi or "Strada Nuova" that was begun in 1550 to house the residences of the most illustrious members of the Genoese aristocracy.

The Palazzo Bianco houses an important collection of European, Italian, and Genoese paintings from the 16th through 19th centuries. Alongside priceless Italian masterpieces and paintings (e.g., Caravaggio and Veronese), one may admire works by such Flemish artists as Hans Memling, Gerard David, Jean Provost, Rubens, and Van Dyck; Dutch masters, such as Steen; French artists such as Vouet and Lancret; as well as Spanish masters such as Zurbaràn and Murillo.

Visit to Palazzo Rosso
The splendid collection of paintings and furnishings in Palazzo Rosso were donated by the Duchess of Galliera to the city of Genoa in 1874. The collection had been astutely gathered by the Brignole-Sale family through a policy of acquisitions and commissions over a period of more than two centuries as a means of consolidating their social, economic and political ascent.

Private visit to Palazzo Cattaneo della Volta received by Marchesi Cattaneo della Volta

Lunch at a restaurant to be determined

Visit to Palazzo Spinola
Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria, built at the end of the 16th century for Francesco Grimaldi, was donated by Francesco and Paolo Spinola in 1958 to the Italian State. The palace still preserves the historic furniture and the magnificent collection of paintings that the noble owners, from Grimaldi to Pallavicino, Doria and Spinola, had gathered over the centuries. The mirror gallery contains frescoes by Lorenzo Ferrari and elegant 17th century furniture; the frescoes of the banqueting rooms of both piani nobili are by Lazzaro Tavarone, whereas the collection of paintings includes famous masterpieces such as Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina and Ritratto Equestre di Gio Carlo Doria by Peter Paul Rubens.

Dinner and Chamber Music Concert at Palazzo del Principe, residence of Principi Doria Pamphilj
The Genoese residence of the Doria Pamphilj princes is the most important monumental and decorative complex from 16th century Liguria. It was built just beyond the city walls for Admiral Andrea Doria in the 1520s and extended by his heir, Giovanni Andrea I, following a design by Giovanni Ponzello. The palazzo houses a great wealth of stuccoes, tapestries, sculptures, furniture and paintings by Agnolo Bronzino, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Aurelio Lomi, Domenico Piola and Domenico Parodi. Perin del Vaga decorated the Hall of Giants, with the cycle of frescoes of The Fall of the Giants (1533), together with the Loggia of Heroes, the Hall of Roman Charity and the four private rooms for Andrea Doria.

Monday, May 11 - Genoa/Turin

Depart for Turin; visits along the way:

Private visit to Castello di Guarene in Guarene
One of the most beautiful 18th century private residences in Piedmont.

Lunch - Italian cooking class and wine tasting featuring regional specialties

Private visit to Fondazione Re Rebaudengo in Guarene d'Alba
The 17th century Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, protected by the Italian Cultural Heritage and Environment Office, is a complex historical building. It occupies a central position within the town, and is the result of several constructions that have followed each other in time. The project transformed the palace into an exhibition center, but respected its existing plan.

Arrival in Turin at Hotel Principe di Piemonte
Free afternoon/evening to explore Turin, dinner under own arrangements

Tuesday, May 12 - Turin

Visit to Museo del Cinema
In 1941, a project of Maria Adriana Prolo, historian and collector, gave life to the National Museum of Cinema. The Museum is located inside the Mole Antonelliana, designed by Alessandro Antonelli, and was inaugurated in July 2000. François Confino's spectacular setting has turned the historic building representing the city of Turin into a unique vertical museum.

Visit to Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
The famous art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo created the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l'Arte in Turin in 1995. The Fondazione is a showcase for research and work being produced by some of the most interesting avant-guard movements, providing a focus for new generations of artists, critics and curators. It aims to enable an ever-wider public to learn about the changes and trends in contemporary art: from painting to sculpture, from photography to video, installation and performances.

Lunch at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Visit to the Lingotto Project

Renowned architect Renzo Piano wanted to give the town of Turin a place where public and private spaces intermingled, to create a site combining research and knowledge, culture and technology. Thus, FIAT's headquarters now rubs shoulders with an auditorium, an exhibition center, a university science department, a hotel, a shopping centre and a cinema complex. The Lingotto project is based around two clusters: in the north, there is the university and the incubator for start-up companies, a cluster for culture, training and research combined with practical experimentation; in the south lies the center for innovation and the exhibition center, which form a cluster for the flow of ideas between the world of innovation and the marketplace.

As if to echo the architectural feats of its past, Renzo Piano's Lingotto includes two displays of bravura: the Pinacoteca Gianni and Marella Agnelli, and the "Bolla". The Pinacoteca houses the Agnelli art collections. Designed like a treasure chest overhanging the north tower, it seems to float above the building. The semi-spherical "Bolla" contains a conference room that has an unrivalled view over the town and over the Alps.

Optional walk dedicated to the architecture of Guarini and Juvarra

Private visit to the residence of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Dinner at Villa d'Agliè received by the Giacosa family

Wednesday, May 13 - Turin

Visit to the Castle of Venaria Reale
The Venaria Reale site is a unique environmental and architectural experience of extraordinary interest. It is an immense, varied and imposing space where the visitor cannot help feeling drawn into the magic atmosphere of cultural attractions and amusements that were the pastimes of nobility.

Entertainment, pageants, concerts and exhibitions alternate with opportunities to enjoy one's leisure, direct and intimate contact with nature, sports, relaxation and the culture of fine food and wines. Venaria Reale and the old market town represent a treasure trove of historic events and trials and tribulations. We sense this in the imposing baroque palace, with its vast gardens, one of the most significant examples of 17th and 18th century art and architecture. We sense it, too, in the La Mandria Park, one of the finest examples of European environmental havens where numerous species of both domestic and wild animals live in complete freedom, and where a significant legacy of historic and architectural wealth is preserved.

Visit to Centro Internazionale del Cavallo
The prestigious La Venaria Reale horse center is located in the regional park of La Mandria and is part of a global project seeking to enhance the Reggia di Venaria palace and its entire area. The project includes the recovery and restoration of the Cascina Rubbianetta, a series of buildings covering an area of about 5,000 square meters. It was built in 1863 as a stable for breeding horses with paddocks and training rings as well as an indoor ring of about 4,000 square meters.

Lunch at Fondazione Pistoletto
The Pistoletto Foundation was created in 1998 by Michelangelo Pistoletto as a school for young artists who share a common objective: a love of difference. The foundation itself is housed in an old abandoned factory. Pistoletto himself said: "The Foundation was designed as a calling card for the autonomy of the artists and the art in general. I visualized it to be a laboratory of sorts; and when I say laboratory, I mean something really close to science. I think that between art and science there is a direct correspondence that can be achieved through imaginative association."

Private visit to Il Torrione in Pinerolo, residence of Marchese Doria Lamba
The villa of the marquis Doria Lamba of Pinerolo (TO) is an architectural complex of medieval origin that has evolved through the 19th century. The great park that surrounds the villa, designed by Xavier Kurten, expresses a romantic style. Kurten was the gardener of the court of Savoy who, during the first decades of the 19th century, designed the parks of the castles of Pollenzo and Racconigi together with architect Pelagio Palagi. The small medieval fortress was transformed during the 17th century into a country villa with ample gardens and the laborer's cottages of the estate. At the beginning of the 19th century, the villa was enlarged by architects Ignazio Michela and Alessandro Antonelli. The current owner is the marquis Brancaleone Doria Lamba, first-born of the dogal branch of the ancient Genoese family.

Visit to Castello di Rivoli
Under the present direction of Ida Gianelli, this important museum, which opened in 1984, has become one of the most admired exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Europe. Besides the sheer quality of the work, its appeal is the unusual juxtaposition of Arte Povera presented in a suite of grand Baroque rooms originally designed by Filippo Juvarra at the beginning of the 18th century.

Dinner under own arrangements

Thursday, May 14 - Turin

Visit to Biblioteca Reale at Palazzo Reale

Visit to Teatro Carignano
Teatro Carignano is one of Turin's historic theatres which will be celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2011. In the 18th century the "new theater" was designed by Giovanni Battista Feroggio who followed Benedetto Alfieri's layout, modifying the exterior of the building by providing a wide portico, which was characteristic of 18th century theaters.

Visit to Teatro Regio (designed by Carlo Mollino)

Lunch at Ristorante il Cambio
One of the most elegant restaurants in Italy, housed in a 19th century building and known for traditional and refined Piedmont cuisine.

Visit to Casa Museo di Carlo Mollino
Carlo Mollino (1905-1973 Turin, Italy) was a noted professor/practitioner of architecture. His career was highly diversified: he was a designer of furniture and interiors, fashion, theater and film sets, he loved photography, writing, and skiing. He was a student of the occult, and guided by the past, in particular, he was fascinated by the tomb of the Egyptian royal architect, kha (ca. 1390-1352 B.C.E).

Mollino loved life so much that he wanted to replicate every aspect of it and carry it to the kingdom of the dead. He learned that kha decorated his own future tomb in his spare time, and that is what Mollino did with his 18th century apartment. In 1960, on the Po river in Turin, Mollino took possession of a villa, the 'warrior's house of rest'. He never spent a single night there. Casa Mollino was his private pyramid - an eclectic space, carefully created by his own aesthetic sense, made up of reminiscences of his life that appear among mirrors, lace curtains and velvet.

Private visit to collezione Brignone
Private visit to one of the best private collections of contemporary art in Piedmont. At this beautiful modern villa overlooking the city of Turin we will be received by Marco Brignone.

Dinner and embroidery demonstration at Castello di Pralormo, received by Contessa di Pralormo
Pralormo castle is a rare example of an historical house inhabited by the same family since 1600. Built on the summit of Pralormo hill (about 19 miles from Turin), the castle must surely have existed before the year 1200 as one of the fortified places which abounded in the Piedmont of feudal times. Through the centuries, parts were added to the original square nucleus, among these, two round towers on the east wing and the 18th century chapel. The present layout dates back to the first half of 19th century.

Besides the grand hall, the castle's attractions include an extremely well-stocked library and a hall entirely floored with 18th century blue Piedmontese majolica. The furnishing dates back to different periods and offers significant examples of the most important styles. In the 19th century, a romantic English style park with forest trees was laid out by famous landscape architect Xavier Kurten.

During the visit, there will be a demonstration of Piedmontese embroidery known as Bandera embroidery. This tradition began in Piedmont at the end of 17th century when Maria Giovanna Battista, Duchess of Savoia Nemours came from France to marry Carlo Emanuele II, Duke of Savoia. In preparation for this wedding, noble families covered the furniture of their castles with cotton fabric to hide their damaged silk fabrics, which were too expensive to replace due to costly subsidies for the recent wars. In order to enhance the look of this plain cotton fabric, aristocratic ladies embroidered it with patterns inspired by Italian baroque architecture.

Friday, May 15 - Turin

Departures

Mini bus transfer from the Hotel Principi di Piemonte to Milan Malpensa airport