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Turin is the most boring city in the world
Gustave Flaubert (1845)

This is an ancient town....

No longer the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, Turin in the 1920s is still the most international town in the country. With the post-war industrial explosion, the budding cinematographic production houses, the scientific research carried on by the universities, the social struggles, the city is leading the way to the future; with its ancient  ruins, museums, cathedrals and  traditions, the city still has its foundations firmly in the past. And with the longstanding esotheric tradition, the Celtic misteries, the Egyptian relics and the old legends, something darker lurks in unexpected places.

Waiting...

In Turin, they say that if you mind your own businness nothing bad can befall you.
Bruno Gambarotta (1995)

Essential information for setting Cthulhu Games south of the Alps...

Timeline 3.1 - covering major political events in Italy, social events in Turin, plus a section devoted to the Unusual and one to Crime, between the years 1918 and 1938. Expanded and fully indexed.

 Timeline for Italy, 1918-1938

 Timelines for Turin and Piedmont  

Italian Cars of the '20s and '30s - models, variants and descriptions.

Italian Airways of the '20s and '30s - flights, times, fares, airports, lines and destinations

Shopping in Italy - a less glamorous subject than it might seem, this is a short price list for essentials in Italy in the 20s and 30s, with extensive notes on Italian lifestyle.

The Underground - details on the many generations of underground structures that criss-cross the town's underground. The Aegyptian Museum - Being a brief history and loose inventory of various items of interest in the Turin Egyptian Museum Collections.
	The Criminal Slang - a short selected dictionary of Piedmontese words and slang expessions employed by criminals and general lowlives. Turin Area Industries - a brief overview of the industrial landscape through the years, including the industry development effects on population. Entertainment - theatres, cinemas, movies, hit songs on the radio, bestsellers.
Eating and Shopping in Turin - a short list of the places catering for the tastes and the needs of the well to do. Libraries and Archives - limited to the Turin area and with an outline of the contents. Newspapers, Magazines and Rags - foundamental research tool and archive of small history

 Many of the following pieces dealing with the more mysterious side of the town were submitted to Ricardo J. Mendez's original "Strange Vistas", and he kindly accepted them and published them on his site. They are reproduced here, having been corrected and expanded to include new data and pictures. Other are original to this site. More will be added...

The Monster of Via della Consolata - facts concerning a serial killer and his dream-inspired deeds, in 1902.

 Lo Smemorato di Collegno - a case of mistaken identity that divided the Italian public for over five years, between 1926 and 1931.

 The Tattooed Man - or how a dead man put a weird spin on a slow night, in 1962.

 Germana Grosso and the Spacemen -  1963: a kindly lady in contact with aliens and somehow involved in the Kennedy assassination.

  The Devil in Suburbia - a case of (supposed) possession and murder in Turin, 1960/70s

 Musine' From Cursed Mountain to UFO Landing Base - from ufo-watchers to new-agers, from visiting bishops to devil worshippers, Mount Musiné apparently has something in store for everyone. 

Gustavo Adolfo Rol - a true  psichic phenomenon protecting his followers from an unpleasant truth or an overrated illusionist mocking three generations?

 Shrouded Ladies and Other Ghosts; A Survey - reviewing the hauntings in Turin, the most haunted town in Italy. Now in its Third, much expanded and illustrated edition.

The Turin Shroud - facts, interpretations and legends; dedicated to the "Old Timers" of the Strange-Aeons mailing list.

Strange Things and Stranger Places

Adventures, ideas, tales of terror, thingies, maps, props, off-site places and stuff.

The Case of Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux - a mood setting piece, an extended Tale of Terror set in Turin between 1918 and 1938, complete with new Mythos tomes and stats for a man slowly entering a nightmare. The de-luxe, updated and corrected edition is finally on line, while the old, light version (no pictures and formatting) in a 14k .zip file (expands to a 36k .txt file) can still be downloaded here

A Collection of Antique and Curious - a .zip file including separate documents about:

the most interesting pieces in the Turin Egyptian Museum (with game stats)...
... and in the Anthropological Museum;
a list of Tomes, supposedly belonging to the Royal Library (with game stats);
the lost Stone Tablet commemorating, riddle-like, Nostradamus' stay in Turin (with a picture);

Maps Folder - in .jpg format unless otherwise stated.

Map of Turin From the 1931 RACI (Royal Automobile Club of Italy) dashboard booklet.
Northern Italian Roadways - restored (as a .gif file) from a badly stained RACI booklet, complete with border checkpoints and Alpine passes.

Off-Site Resources

A superbly detailed but huge map (over 750 k .jpg file) of the city of Turin can be found in the archives of the University of Texas, Austin. It's taken from Baedeker's Northern Italy Handbook For Travellers by Karl Baedeker, Fourteenth Remodelled Edition 1913, so it does not show the changes to the urban geography caused by the Fascist Regime; it is nonetheless quite recommended, as is the whole UT, Austin site.
Thanks to Yves Duchesne for letting us know.

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Last Updated Mrch 2000