Turin, Rome street paving

The major artery in the historic center of Turin that connects Piazza San Carlo to Piazza Castello with a 607-meter-long straight street largely corresponds to the ancient “Via Nuova” built to a design by Ascanio Vittozzi at the behest of Charles Emmanuel I at the end of the 16th century: the ancient street, which was later readjusted in the 17th century, reached as far as the present Via Gramsci until the beginning of the 19th century, and took on its present length under the reign of Charles Felix. Instead, its present appearance dates back to the interventions that took place between the late 19th century (in 1871 the street was dedicated to Rome, which had recently become the capital of Italy) and the early 20th century. The city’s ambition was to create a modern street, suitable for pedestrian and carriageable traffic. Work was completed in the 1930s, although some projects were never realized (for example, a subway tunnel was planned to lead to a first subway line: today the basement of Via Roma is occupied by an underground parking lot).
On either side of the part of the street open to traffic run two wings of arcades overlooked by elegant buildings and featuring paving in which 23 different types of materials of various origins have been identified, although there is no shortage of local marble. The pavement decoration does not follow a regular pattern: it is possible to find Moncervetto bardiglio widely used in the first block, the one facing Piazza Castello (on the right, going toward Piazza San Carlo). Moncervetto marble was used here for the large gray rectangles framed by Roja green that are arranged in the center of the yellow Trani stone background.