Until I spent the first half of my year abroad in Turin, it was a city I knew very little about. In fact, until I stepped off the plane, the only thing I could tell you was that it was the home of Juventus football club and it was near the Alps. But after only a week there I realised it was completely unlike any other Italian city I’d ever visited. A particular area that fascinated me was San Salvario, a quarter in the south-east area of the city behind the central Porta Nuova station; every weekend hundreds of young people filled the streets, every other shop was either a bar, a restaurant, or something inbetween (such as the so-called ‘locali apericena’). The whole area had a sense of community very separate from the rest of the city and didn’t seem to fit into any typical Italian stereotype. Not only does it have its own commune with the Casa del Quartiere, but the area holds a synagogue, a Catholic church, a Muslim prayer room and a temple within a few metres of each other and for me, this image of a multicultural hub was something I’d never encountered in Italy, and was ultimately the reason I chose to write my year abroad essay on it.
OPINIONI
As I began to research San Salvario, what shocked me was its previous reputation. In the 90s, the area was a national symbol against immigration across Italy, as an area that used to suffer particularly from drugs, prostitution and violence. In fact, it was considered an example against multiculturalism in Italy – yet somehow in less than 20 years it had not only become the coolest area in Turin but also an example of a self-sustaining multicultural community. I discovered that this wasn’t just due to government policies, but also a commitment by the citizens of the area to change its reputation, and talking to people from the area I could see the passion they all had for their community. Various groups and associations had sprung up in the early 2000s which in
Source: http://www.torinoggi.it
Source: http://torinodailyphoto.blogspot.co.uk
2003 joined under the Casa del Quartiere- a community space which has over 21 services and groups, offers 65 different courses, 63 different associations and organised over 144 events in 2016 alone. The social changes only really began in 2011 when the local government introduced a ‘reverse zoning’ law, prohibiting the opening of new commercial activity in the old historical centre and forcing all new activity to open in the peripheral quarters.