The social dinner will take place at the Il Circolo dei Lettori, gia' Circolo degli ARTISTI, Palazzo GRANERI della ROCCIA, Via Bogino 9, TORINO. The place is in the center of the city, just at the back of the National Library (Biblioteca Nazionale), very close to piazza Castello, piazza Carignano and Via Roma. It should be easily reachable on foot from most of the hotels. Here a MAP extracted from google Maps.

Palazzo GRANERI constitutes a nice example of Barocco Piemontese, it has been built, for Marc' Antonio Graneri, abate di Entremont, by the architect Gian Francesco Baroncelli. The construction was quite slow, it started in 1683 and finished in 1702. The architect is not a prominent name in the Barocco piemontese but it is known that he has been working under Amedeo Castellamonte (Venaria Reale) and that he has been the master builder for the Carignano Palace (project by Guarino Guarini).

It is in the first floor of this palace that in 1706 the nobility of the city celebrated the victory against France (Roi Soleil) that kept for many months the city of Torino under siege. It is during this siege that took place the famous (at least for the italian of my age) episode of Pietro Micca who exploded himself to prevent the French to enter the defences of the city by a tunnel (the actual location is now a museum that holds his name).

The siege of Torino marks an important episode in the Italian history. Because of this victory against France, Amedeo II duca di Savoia, becomes King of Savoia and Sicily, with the acquisition of Sicily (Utrecht treatise, 1713).