Daily life in Aurora and Porta Palazzo

The Porta Palazzo market

The market in piazza della Repubblica is held Monday to Saturday and mixes food and non-food stalls: fruit and vegetables, farmers, fish, flowers and, in the covered masonry pavilions, meat and groceries. MuseoTorino presents it as the largest market in Europe. Since 2005 the facade of the covered market has carried Michelangelo Pistoletto's "Amare le differenze" (Love differences), a neon text in 39 languages from the Luci d'Artista project.

On the square stands the Centro Palatino, the building by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas (1998–2011) that replaced the old covered clothing market and has returned to commercial use; in the Santa Croce block is the Galleria Umberto I, with shops and cafés under its glass roof.

Balon and Borgo Dora

The Balon quarter, right by the square, is home to the well-known flea market; the origin of its name is still uncertain. Turismo Torino points to Borgo Dora for antique shops, galleries and markets.

Library

The Italo Calvino city library, at lungo Dora Agrigento 94, opened in June 2008 in place of the old branch on corso Vercelli, tripling the space open to the public. It has a reading room with newspapers, spaces for children and teenagers by age group, a computer lab, a conference room, board games and free Wi-Fi. Opening hours are published on the library's page.