My Town, My Team – Juventus: A Local’s Guide to Turin and The Old Lady

Pierpaolo Laurenti is in his late-30s, he is a Turin native and lifelong supporter of Juventus. For Destination Calcio’s My Town, My Team series, he told us about the place he calls home and his relationship with Italy’s most successful club.

Why Juventus?

I was born here, so I have the connection to the city. And my dad was a Juventino, he had the joy of watching Michel Platini. For me it was Alessandro Del Piero, and now for my sons it’s Kenan Yildiz.

When I first started watching Juve there was Roberto Baggio, then Del Piero and others. When I got older I started going to the stadium with my friends, it really is our passion. Sometimes there were victories, sometimes not. But our blood is always black and white.

What’s your early memories?

My first memory was in 1999. I went with my father to the old Stadio delle Alpi. It was Juve against Reggina when Carlo Ancelotti was our coach. I remember very little of the match itself, but I do remember the chants getting louder and louder when I entered the stadium. To see everyone with scarves, supporting the team the whole time… We were in a Curva Scirea, in the middle of the real Juventus supporters, the loudest. It was amazing.

Tell us about Turin 

I love it here. It’s my city. We have history, architecture… You can be at the seaside or the mountains in about an hour. We have everything.

This city changed in 2006. After hosting the Winter Olympics, Turin became a totally different place in terms of tourists. Before 2006 you wouldn’t see any tourist buses in the city. Now you do. Before, if you went outside the city and people found out you were from Turin they would say, “Ah, Fiat and Juventus.” That all changed. After the Olympics, they would say, “I’ve been there, I went to the Egyptian Museum, the Cinema Museum…”

There are many people talking in different languages, from different continents, from America to Australia to Asia and beyond. It’s an international environment and my children will grow up in that environment. The city wants to be part of international tourism.

If you come to Turin, you can do pretty much everything. If you like museums, we have the Egyptian Museum that is the most important in the world outside of Egypt. There are other museums like the National Cinema and the Savoy, the former ruling family of Turin. 

There are historical buildings that are typical Italian baroque, very beautiful to see. We also have around 20 kilometres of porticoes. If you come here to Monte Cappuccini, you have a beautiful view over the city. You can come here to have a beer with friends or just come to admire the view and take pictures.

We have the huge market in Porta Palazzo, the biggest of its kind in Europe, we have a lot of churches, and don’t forget we have skiing. So you can pretty much do everything in Torino.

What about the football?

Come to Piemonte and you can watch plenty of football. Not just Serie A. We have the two clubs, Juve and Torino. People who live in the city tend to support Torino. If you’re born and raised in Torino, you tend to support Torino. There is banter between the fans but the passion is still there from both sides. It’s not unusual for the talk about the derby to start two weeks before, among work colleagues. So during the derby or when Juve lose games, Torino fans are happy, but that’s also the case for most of Italy, because from 30 million football fans in the country, 10m of them are Juve fans. The rest don’t like us.

Do you have any pre-match superstitions?

If we watch games on TV as a family, we all sit on the same place on the couch. Every time. And we all wear jerseys. 

Tell us about the food

Red wine is very famous here in Piedmont, wines such as Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barolo. In terms of food, we have vitello tonnato and carne cruda. So if you like meat, veal, beef and so on you can find something very special here. 

Then there’s agnolotti and tagliolini. Rice is very famous here, as well as arrosto verdura, but you can’t forget bagna cauda, which is a very typical dish from the region with raw vegetables. 

For dessert, bunet is our most famous choice from Piedmont. Not to forget we also have bicerin, which is a drink based on coffee, cream, and chocolate, it’s something you have to try if you come to Turin. 

If you’re a Juve fan, I’d recommend Da Angelino. It’s in one of the nicest parts of Turin because it’s in front of Castello del Valentino and Monte dei Cappuccini is just behind the restaurant. There are a lot of memories of the 1990s… Juve players on the walls, Baggio, Del Piero, Gigi Buffon, Platini. There’s pictures of the players in the restaurant, in the kitchen, with the chef.

And it’s typical Piemontese cuisine.

Where else is good to go out?

There are different elements to understanding the city. If you want to understand the real nightlife of Turin, there are murazzi (boat landings) close to the River Po, a lot of them are clubs and bars dotted along the river.

For wining and dining, you can spend time in the Quadrilatero Romano zone, it’s full of restaurants of every kind. To enjoy the Italian lifestyle, take a walk in the centre, around Piazza San Carlo, Via Roma and Piazza Castello.