By Alessandra Spreafico

What is Turin 1911 Ri-guida pratica (Re-Practical Guide)? This is a tool we have created for you on the occasion of the 2025 European Researchers’ Night. 

Turin 1911 is a website designed as a scientific tool, written in English, and therefore not accessible to everyone. Our challenge for the European Researchers’ Night was to share our research with the public, to allow a tourist to travel through the Valentino Park and rediscover 1911. But how could we do that if everything has disappeared? That’s how we came up with the idea of the Ri-guida pratica.

We selected one of the many historical guides, combined it with graphic archival materials and with our interpretations of the numerous primary and secondary sources available, and we created a foldable paper guide, in old-fashioned style, but with digital support.

The Ri-guida pratica has a double face. On the Ri-guida pratica front - right side -, three introductory videos illustrates the 1911 Turin International Exposition, the Ri-guida pratica idea, and the Turin 1911 project. The perimeter of the fairground is displayed with an orange polygon on the orthophoto of the Valentino park in 2018. Eight numbered orange dots identify the location of each episode on the actual environment. 

On the Ri-guida pratica back the same eight dots are located in the same place in the actual space but with the historical background provided by the Grand Didier map, one of the many tourist maps representing the 1911 fairgound. A video episode illustrates the Grand Didier map and why we are using it.