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You won’t believe this: After visiting the Museo Egizio on my own, I met Christine and suggested we visit the Royal Palace which was quite nearby. She agreed and we went to get two entrance tickets. I saw a small group of men hanging around and did not take any notice of them. As soon as I paid for the tickets, a buzzer sounded and one of those men, who seemed to be the leader of the group came over to us and said: “Congratulations. One of you is the 500,000 visitor to the Palace in 2012 and you are both now invited to dine in the palace with the Mayor (of Turin) this evening.” Our reply was that we were in a group and our coach would not wait for us. He then asked us to wait for a minute and moved a few steps away and spoke on a radio to somebody else. Then he came back and said;”O.k. no problem. The mayor would be pleased to provide you with a car to take you back to your hotel. If you accept, please be here at 6.00pm” My wife and I looked at each other, nodded and accepted the invitation. More about this later.
The Royal Palace of Turin or Palazzo Reale, was the old Bishops Palace before it became the seat of power of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1528–1580), who greatly expanded it in order to house his ever expanding collections of art, animals, marbles and furniture. Subsequent Dukes continued to enhance the building. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, was added to the structure in 1668-1694.
When the Italian states were unified under Victor Emanuel (member of the Savoy family) as the first King of Italy, on 17 March 1861, Turin became the capital of the new state until the capital was transferred, first to Florence and later to Rome.
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