The Royal Palace of Turin, known as the Venaria Reale, is now the 6 th most visited sight in Italy, after the Colosseum, Pompeii, the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi and the Venice museum circuit. The sumptuous ex-residence and hunting lodge of the Savoy dynasty re-opened in 2007 after an eight year-long restoration project costing over 160 million. The palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains 860,000 sq. ft of pavilions filled with frescoes and paintings as well as a 200 acre garden. Built in the 17 th century, the building and grounds had suffered from a long period of neglect.
Now restored to its former glory, the Venaria Reale has attracted 754 thousand visitors so far this year and is expected to achieve an estimated 850 thousand visitors by the end of 2009.
