Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

🇮🇹 Trento is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th century, the city was the location of the Council of Trent. Formerly part of Austria and Austria-Hungary, it was annexed by Italy in 1919. Trento is the third largest city in the Alps and second largest in the historical region of Tyrol.

Trento is an educational, scientific, financial and political centre in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, in Tyrol and Northern Italy in general. The city contains a picturesque Medieval and Renaissance historic centre, with ancient buildings such as Trento Cathedral and the Castello del Buonconsiglio.

Together with other Alpine towns Trento engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Trento was awarded the title of Alpine Town of the Year 2004.

The city often ranks highly among Italian cities for quality of life, standard of living, and business and job opportunities, being ranked 5th in 2017. Trento is also one of the nation's wealthiest and most prosperous cities, with its province being one of the richest in Italy, with a GDP per capita of €31,200 and a nominal GDP of €16.563 billion.

The University of Trento, founded in 1962 as a Higher University Institute of Social Sciences, is one of the most prestigious medium-small Italian universities, with a strong international vocation. It ranks 1st among 'medium-sized' Universities in the Censis ranking and 2nd in the Il Sole 24 Ore ranking of Italian universities.

The School of International Studies of the University of Trento is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (Apsia), a selected group of institutions for higher education in the field of international relations. It is the first, and currently unique, Italian institute and one of the few Europeans present in the club of the best international study schools in the world that form policy makers.

In the last twenty years, thanks to the gradual creation of various research centres (FBK, FEM) and laboratories in the IT, engineering and sciences fields, Trento and its university have been nicknamed the "Silicon Valley of the Alps".

Economy The city owes much of its unique economy to its position along the main communication route between Italy and Northern Europe and to the Adige river which, prior to its diversion in the mid-19th century, ran through the centre of the city. The Adige river was formerly a navigable river and one of the main commercial routes in the Alps. The original course of the river is now covered by the Via Torre Vanga, Via Torre Verde and the Via Alessandro Manzoni.

As late as World War II, Trento depended on wine-making and silk. The manufacturing industry installed in the post-war period has been mostly dismantled. Today, Trento thrives on commerce, services, tourism, high-quality agriculture and food industry (including wine, fruit), as a research and conference centre thanks to a small but renowned university and internationally renowned research centres such as Fondazione Bruno Kessler, active in both fundamental and applied research, the Italian-German Historical Institute, the Centre for Computational and Systems Biology and ECT*, active in theoretical nuclear studies and part of FBK, and as logistics and transportation thoroughfare.

Valued pink and white porphyry are still excavated from some surrounding areas (Pila). This stone can be seen in many of Trento's buildings, both new and old.

The city has two long-running annual sporting events: the Giro al Sas (a 10 km (6 mi) professional road running competition) was first held in the city in 1907 and continues to the present, while the Giro del Trentino is an annual road cycling race which the city has hosted every year since 1963.

Economy Festival of Trento The Economy Festival (Festival dell’Economia di Trento) was brought into being in 2006 in order to enable and facilitate discussions between economists and a broad public. The aim of this festival is to put economic terminology across to everyone. The Festival dell’Economia di Trento takes place every year at the end of May on the historic Palazzi of the old town in Trento. Well known economists explain and interpret current economic issues, both from an economic-scientific as well as from a social and entrepreneurial viewpoint. In the course of recent years, numerous economic scholars and managers such as Sir Anthony Atkinson, Fan Gang, Zygmunt Bauman and the Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker took an active part.

Education The University of Trento was founded in 1962 and has its headquarters in the city of Trento. The other university location is in Rovereto. In total, over 16,000 students study in Trento. Through the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, the university also works closely together with the universities of Innsbruck and Bolzano. The University of Trento has the following faculties:

Transport The Autostrada A22 (part of the European route E45) highway connects Trento to Verona and to Bolzano, Innsbruck and Munich.

Trento railway station, opened in 1859, forms part of the Brenner railway (Verona–Innsbruck), which is the main rail connection between Italy and Germany. The station is also a junction with the Valsugana railway, which connects Trento to Venice. Trento has several other railway stations, including Trento FTM railway station, terminus of the Trento-Malè-Marilleva railway (FTM).

Bus or train services operate to the main surrounding valleys: Fassa, Fiemme, Gudicarie, Non, Primiero, Rendena, Sole, Tesino, Valsugana.

The public transport network within the city consists of 20 bus lines operated by Trentino Trasporti and a funicular service to Sardagna. The various railway stations within Trento's city limits are integrated into the public transport network.