During my application for Politecnico di Torino there was the option to request a dorm in the Polito’s residence called Sponda Verde. However, for some reason I did not get a room there, their reason being it was full, even when I asked them several times weeks before they told me. The ones that get accepted in the residence seem pretty random, some getting an acceptance in July, others in August, or like me, not at all.
So I went looking for another place, it’s pretty hard to find anything when most of the ads are in Italian and people don’t know any English. That’s why I contacted the other place that was documented on the Polito site, Foyer di Torino.
The landlady doesn’t speak English so conversing with her in the beginning was hard, using Google Translate back and forth I managed to get most of the information you need to know.
The Foyer is a residence with mostly double rooms. They are pretty big which is nice, but then again it’s the only room you’ve got so it shouldn’t be tiny. I’m living on the ground floor at the street side which means you can’t quite open up your window completely as everyone could just peek inside or even step inside if they wanted to. The room is located in a small hallway with 3 other rooms and a bathroom. The shower on this floor has been broken for several months and hasn’t been fixed unfortunately. Luckily there is a small fridge so you don’t have to go up to the first floor every single time you want something.
That being said, on the first floor there’s the landlady’s office, the (big) living room containing a grand piano, two big tables, some sofa’s and a small TV. It’s the meeting place of most of the people from the ground, 1st and 2nd floor. There’s also a shower, a kitchen (with 2 big fridges and personal lockers) and a room with two washing machines (2,5 euro to wash) and two irons. A plus is that every week they take your “dirty” bedsheets and bring you clean ones, so you don’t have to take care of that yourself.
On the ground floor you also have a big courtyard where you can put your bikes so they don’t have to be put on the streetside. It even fits a car, for example to unload your luggage. This is also the place where you need to throw your trashbag whenever it’s full (you can ask the landlady for new bags if needed).
Being on the ground floor has the advantage you don’t need to walk a lot of stairs (there is an elevator available) but the WiFi signal for internet is really bad, at least on my laptop. The internet is fixed with some kind of account that has to be renewed every two months.
The Foyer is nicely located for people who are attending the Politecnico di Torino as it’s only about a ten minute walk to the engineering campus and about fifteen minutes to Parco del Valentino where the architecture courses take place. The rent is 300 euros a month if you stay for a full month, if you don’t stay an entire month the cost per day is more.
In the vicinity of the Foyer there are some stores like “Meta” which is one block away or “Crai” and Carrefour Express which are about a 10 minute walk away. There’s also multiple smaller specialty shops (electronics, bread, …) close by.
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- Double Room
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- Double Room
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- Double Room
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- Bathroom
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- Foyer Living Room
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- Foyer Living Room
