Not a big hotel but one of the first built ones

In 1890, in a large building built right at the crossroads between Via Roma and Via Carlo Alberto (today Via Nino Bixio), the Hotel Cosmopolitain was erected and changed its name several times during its history.

It was not a hotel of particular interest but its grandeur just outside the railway station attracted more passing customers than long term tourism.

This hotel too, as happened throughout the city and the country, was involved in the Italianisation of the names for which Cosmopolitain became Cosmopolita.

In the same period the hotel split up, giving the eastern part the name of Hotel Terminus and leaving the other one with the original name.
After the last war, the Hotel Cosmopolita changed its name to Hotel Plaza and as such survived until the 1980s.

As Terminus, however, it lasted longer, except that it changed its name in recent years to Belle Epoque.

An interesting detail concerns the front part of the building which was originally the hotel restaurant and which in the last part of the 19th century became the seat of the "Regio Dazio Comunale".

Here the taxes due on goods in transit were collected and, thanks to the public weighing station installed right there in front of it, they were weighed and measured.

The function of the Duty Office remained in operation until the early 70s of the last century, when VAT came into force.

(text source: various text processing; image source: private archive)