Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, the top technical universities in Italy, united their efforts in 2004 by launching a unique excellence programme called Alta Scuola Politecnica (ASP). The ASP programme is devoted to 150 students, selected each year from among the top 5-10% of those enrolled in the Engineering, Architecture and Design MSc programmes at each institution. This paper reports on the original motivation, evolution, lessons learned, present status, results, challenges and perspectives of ASP. In particular, the issues related to the selection of the ASP class and to its multidisciplinary nature, the cultural track of ASP and also its sustainability in connection with its location inside the Milano-Torino framework will be highlighted. (Contains 7 notes, 2 tables and 8 figures.)