The "Università degli Studi di Torino" (for short, University of Torino) is one of the best known, best equipped and largest in the country, with a student body of approximately 60,000 and about 2,000 faculty members. It has been attended by students from all over Europe since its foundation in 1404, Erasmus of Rotterdam among others.
In the nineteenth century Torino was the driving force behind the unification of the country and this made for a very strong intellectual tradition which even today centres on the University. In fact, even when the city lost the status of Italian capital to Florence (1863), and eventually to Rome, Torino remained active in maintaining and developing educational methods and ideas at a European level. The attitude adopted by the city of constantly improving and broadening its cultural horizons has generated and encouraged the exchange between intellectuals and students belonging to different countries. In this context, the Erasmus/Socrates program follows a well-established local tradition.
The University of Torino is not situated on a single Campus area but in various buildings all over the city centre, each hosting one or more Schools (Facoltà) and Departments. The three Physics departments (Facoltà di Fisica) are located in one main building in downtown Torino, not very far from the historic 17th century University Administration building and just in front of the reknowned Valentino park close to the Po river.