The Royal Museums in the heart of Turin offer a journey through history, art and nature with exhibits ranging from prehistoric times to the 20th century. Palazzo Reale, once the primary residence of the House of Savoy, presents furnishings, decoration and precious objects illustrating the royal family’s history and the splendour of the court. From the Room of Medals, we enter the Royal Armoury with its vast collection of armour and weapons, which in turn provides access to the Royal Library, founded by Carlo Alberto, whose numerous purchases of books and drawings include a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. The Galleria Sabauda displays paintings from the leading European schools and houses the Flemish collection of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Located in the basement of the Manica Nuova or New Wing, the Museo di Antichità holds archaeological finds from excavations in the region of Piedmont, including the Treasure of Marengo. The palace stands in the Royal Gardens.

My trip to the Royal Museums was a journey into an infinite number of parallel universes. I felt like some kind of curious, Doctor Who-style traveller as I moved from the secret-shadowed corridors of the Museum of Antiquities to the gilded inlays in the Queen’s Apartments and the plumed armour in the triumphant cavalcade that is the Armoury. I was almost surprised not to bump into Eugenio, his cousin Amedeo, the cook who invented grissini bread sticks for him, a lady-in-waiting, or Beaumont, in shirtsleeves, busy painting butterfly wings onto ceiling angels. I never felt like I was alone. Fact is, there is nothing at all “past” about this place: Palazzo Reale is alive, and if you don’t get that, then perhaps you’re some kind of caryatid!

Japanese manufacture The Royal Armoury holds three complete suits of Japanese armour. This one, datable between the end of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 18th, was a gift to Victor Emanuel II from Emperor Meiji in 1869, just before the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Trade between the Kingdom of Italy and Japan. Made of a whole variety of materials, including silk, leather, lacquer and gilded copper, it is of the light-weight do-maru type used for combat on foot.

Botticelli The Galleria Sabauda exhibits a depiction of Venus painted by the Florentine artist Botticelli during the Renaissance. Donated to the museum by the collector Riccardo Gualino in 1930, it shows the young goddess in a pose similar to that of the Birth of Venus in the Uffizi by the same hand. The subject was in fact repeatedly addressed by Botticelli and his pupils in that period.

Leonardo da Vinci The collection of the Biblioteca Reale in Turin includes the Codice sul volo degli uccelli (1505-06), a small-sized codex documenting and illustrating Leonardo's studies based on the observation of birds in flight. The artist and scientist, who wrote backwards starting from the end, develops an authentic modern theory that underpins the design of his famous flying machines.

Late 17th – early 19th century In the reception rooms on the first floor of the Royal Palace, we proceed through three antechambers, once watched over by guards, to the Throne Room, where the king once performed his official functions. The throne is decorated with the royal crown and lion's heads, representing strength. The dominant colour is red, the symbol of nobility. On the back and along the walls, the monogram CA recalls that the room was modernized by order of Charles Albert of Savoy in 1831.