In the 2nd half of the XIXth century the travel guides describedthis part of the alpine territory as “a little Switzerlandnear Turin”. This representation is maybe disappearedtoday, however it tells us about an early bent for the loisir,which is confirmed not only by the coeval frequentationsof the Turin’s upper class, dating back in this area to theXVIIIth century, but also by the physical traces that havebeen produced in this part of the territory by this close relationshipbetween mountain and city. The tourist buildings(i.e. the big historical hotels, then supporting the risingalpine activities of the Turin’s section of the Alpine Club ofItaly, CAI); the luxury villas; the Turin-Ceres railroad, withits sophisticated architectural experimentation on the stations,inspired by some Swiss typological models; everythingtells about a mainly “urban” image of these valleysbetween mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, with astrong relationship with Turin and with its social and economicalélites.