Palazzo Madama, with its superb 1720s double staircase once used in the 1969 movie “The Italian Job” (minis race down the staircase), is so called because of its sumptuous French-style interiors that were created for the “Madame Reali”, princesses of the French royal house who married into the upwardly mobile House of Savoy.

The museum’s collection boasts the Turin-Milan Hours, the only surviving manuscript, illuminated by Jan van Eyck, the 1220s casket of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, covered in Limoges enamel plaques of the rarest period and 560 drawings by Juvarra along with many other masterpieces. Finally reopened to the public the Palazzo Madama is yet another reason to visit that least touristy of Italian cities, Turin.