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From the first discussions about the bidding of Turin to host the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, it was clear that the Games were a great opportunity for the city and the region of Piedmont. But there was also the consciousness that Turin had to change the “Fiat Company Town” stereotype, to be repositioned on the world map and “to show the world that there was an ancient and modern Turin (serving as a catalyst for accelerating change) which was innovatively immersed within its revalued past and open to international culture, a city seeking to receive and host visitors from around the world”(Castellani, 2006; Bondonio, Campaniello, 2006).

As has happened in many other host cities, Turin seized the opportunity of the Games for creating a new city devoted to tourism, sport and culture, performing a new image, promoting the city’s cultural heritage, consolidating its cultural offer, getting and planning international events. That means that the tourism industry had to work not only for the traditional business arrivals, but also for leisure and cultural tourism; the Winter Olympic Games were expected to be a catalyst for urban regeneration, and a formidable tool to change the local identity and to promote internationally the city, as suggested by the international literature on Olympic Games and Legacy (De Moragas, 1996; Cashman, 2004; Preuss, 2006). Tourism and culture were the main tools for this regeneration process.