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San Salvario, Valentino

How multicoloured San Salvario is!
Many of the peoples in this itinerary arrived at Porta Nuova station and later became San Salvario citizens. From here, you can start a journey within the city and the world, in a multiethnic quarter.

BLACK & WHITE The shop ranges from "fashion clothes, leather, trendy items, jeans, sexy, evening, show, disco, Afro-American products, wigs, braids and plats, human and synthetic hair"... having a look is a must. Sergio, the shop’s owner, is the "Sergio" of the film, the young man inspiring the plot. He tells us how his both business and "social" activity began: "I dropped out of Medicine during my second year, left my family and went to live as a Homeless in cellars and cars of the area. I was in love with a Nigerian woman who was a client of the hairdressers where I started to work, passing from factotum to director!" San Salvario was the protagonist of his adventure: "Since ‘95, the peak moment of the immigration flux from Africa, I’ve managed to get on in the shop: I shampooed, made plats and bought hair in London... I learned a profession". In 2000 Sergio opened his multiethnic shop, which soon became the centre of san salvario’s life: "I’ve specialised in clothes and cosmetics for African women: their skin and their hair are very different to ours and they need a special treatment, using products that initially... could only be found in London or Paris! My clientele has become just like a family... we all know each other. I could never manage to remove my roots from San Salvario! I’ve learnt "Picenglish" (or something like that!)... a mixture between English, the colonisers’ language, and the local dialects of the various African areas. Some examples!? KABUKABU is the illegal taxi...OMUSEÈ KAKABU’ means "s/he’s beautiful"... SHAKARA "acts like a dreamy bloke"!! Visiting Sergio’s shop is unusual: it is amusing to see him at work. Speaking perfect picenglish he bargains on prices, teases, comments his clients’ tastes... he’s not the usual salesman! His clients aren’t usual either: they enter the shop to go to the toilet, eat, or even sit on the sofa just for a chat! Even Enrico Verra was a shop assistant here for some time, in order to study, observe and interact with San Salvario’s "diversities". Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. non-stop. Via Galliari, 8/d. Aperto dalle 9 alle 9 non stop. Via Galliari, 8/d.	THE VALENTINO The city's historical park, the most popular, the most famous... the most loyal to Turin's elegant, varied and variegated personality!! According to some, it used to be traditional on February 14 to hold a fair within the park in which the ladies would call their gentleman "Valentino". This would explain the origin of the name. As well as being a refuge for couples, the park offers moments of leisure to students (if someone tells you they're going to study there, don't believe them... nobody resists the temptation of a nice doze in the Valentino!!!), an open air gym for the many local joggers and athletes as well as the unique opportunity of enjoying a breathtaking panorama: the river, the hills and their villas. The Park is busy at night too: youths sit on the grass to have a beer (action usually referred to as "andiamo agli imbarchini?", shall we go to the boarding points?) or go dancing in the two park discos - Matilda and Cacao. Another characteristic of the park are the canoe clubs from where glorious fleets of fit youths set off to assault the never clear Po waters!! Roooow! Its origins date back to the 1500, but its "golden days" coincide with the years in which the Royal Madam Maria Cristina of France chose it as favourite residence and transformed it into a luxurious Italian delight. Today the castle hosts a particular kind of court: architecture students - who couldn’t wish for a better source of inspiration!! Parco Valentino.
THE MEDIEVAL "BORGO" Inaugurated on April 27, 1884 it was designed by Portuguese architect Alfredo d’Andrade. It is a medieval fort, complete with a borgo where you can find workshops, studios, porticoes and a drawbridge. Having a walk inside is fun and surreal… students observe it to shape their fantasies, adults take advantage of those fantasies to get lost inside them! Parco Valentino	ISRAELITE TEMPLE The synagogue has an oriental, Moorish style and is richly decorated, especially on the exterior. It can hold up to 1,400 people. Unlike traditional synagogues where the Teva (podium) and the Aron (cabinet) are placed along the longitudinal axis, Turin’s synagogue presents a nave and two aisles and the Teva and the Aron join to form an altar... in this manner resembling a western basilica much more. Piazza Primo Levi	WALDENSIAN TEMPLE Characterised by two long and thin steeples on the facade, and by the rose window high above the narrow windows. Following Waldensian theology, there is no altar: at the centre lies the pulpit in carved walnut and opposite there is a table with an open Bible on it. Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 23