Borgo Po & Gran Madre

Cross the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and the city changes register. Borgo Po is a narrow strip of nineteenth-century houses pressed between the river and the hill, with the Gran Madre's dome at its head and the funicular to Superga a short walk upstream.

It is the shortest hop from the centre of any district on this list — the walk to Piazza Castello takes twelve minutes — and yet the streets behind the church are quiet enough to hear the river.

Buyers here are usually trading a larger flat elsewhere for a smaller one with a balcony facing the water, or moving up the slope into the first of the hillside villas.