POLO REALE, Royal Palace Apartments

After the state rooms, your visit of the Royal Palace s noble first floor continues on with the private apartments the Savoys lived in. Most of the rooms were renovated in the first half of the 1800s at the request of King Charles Albert, while most of the original furnishings and furniture were left untouched. In these rooms you'll see magnificent 18th-century inlaid furniture and a small and refined private chapel that was just recently restored and reopened.

The series of rooms in the King's apartment is interrupted by a Baroque hall that is one of the best preserved rooms in the entire building: this is the so-called Gallery of Daniel, named after the Viennese painter Daniel Seyter who decorated it towards the end of the 17th century. On the ceiling you can admire the triumph of a hero in a red cape, accompanied by figures representing his virtues: it is the Duke Victor Amadeus II.

After the gallery, go into the Queen's apartment. These rooms also offer a chance to see magnificent furniture, especially the furnishings in the Queen's chamber where she was dressed and adorned. I'd also like to point out the beautiful dining room with its walls covered in tapestries, and right after the Coffee Room, a true Baroque jewel.

At the back of the Queen's apartment you'll enter the Sala dell'Alcova (alcove room) where the nuptial bed of the sovereigns once towered, with walls decorated with Baroque carvings; now in its place you can admire an amazing collection of antique oriental vases.

The last halls have a more solemn atmosphere: after crossing the Queen's throne room you'll wind up in a wide and bright Ballroom from the first half of the 1800s. It was created by joining two halls together, and was done by a Bolognese painter and decorator who also painted the mythological fresco on the ceiling. The balcony you can see in the back was intended for an orchestra. The white columns are hollow so that they weigh less and there wasn't any risk of the floor falling out from under the dancers' feet!

Within the Royal Palace you can also visit other apartments on both the upper floors and on the ground level. But to really put you into a Savoy state of mind, MyWoWo will be with you for two more tours: the Armory and the Royal Library.

FUN FACT: of all the rooms of the Queen's apartment, the most amusing one is the "Machine Room". It got its name from the fact that it holds a rudimentary crane-operated elevator that let the sovereign avoid having to climb up the stairs!