Leave Turin on S.S. 25, going west. In 13km/8mi the road comes to Rivoli (390m/1,287ft; pop. 5,000), an old-world town situated between morainic hills, once a favorite residence of the house of Savoy, with a Baroque palace (by Juvarra, 1712), of which only a third was completed (419m/1,383ft). Beyond Rivoli the road enters the Cottian Alps and
ascends the Val di Susa, the valley of the Dora Riparia. At the mouth of the valley, on a hill to the left, is the Sacra di San Michele abbey (11th-13th centuries: alt. 962m/3,175ft).