My husband and I are planning a last minute trip for next week, flying into and out of Milan. We have seven days to work with and we’d like to stick with travel by train.
At this point, we know we want to see Milan- is three days enough?- and we’d like to go to Turin, and and do a day trip from there to visit a nearby town that we have a family connection with.
What else would you all suggest we do or see in this area within the time frame we have available?
Thank you in advance!
We just spent 8 days in Turin, loved it and could have stayed longer. We hope to go back. With 3 days in Milan, 4 days in Turin with your daytrip on one of those days could fill your 7 days nicely. Turin is filled with beautiful piazzas, great museums, great food and welcoming locals.
Based upon your itinerary and what we've researched, Claire is right, those 2 cities plus perhaps a day trip will easily fill your trip. Here's a list of museums from the Turin tourist bureau - https://www.visitaretorino.it/visit-turin/turin-museums.php. And a very cool description of Turin by a blogger - https://michelledamiani.com/travel-in-italy/seven-reasons-to-add-turin-to-your-bucket-list
Claire, We're going to Turin next year, so wondered if you had specific recommendations for museums, cafes, places you really liked? We've identified Hotel NH Collection Torino Santo Stefano - 4 star, for around $200 per night, but curious if you stayed elsewhere?
We stayed at the Grand Hotel Sitea. It is a lovely hotel, in a great location and a wonderful breakfast and staff. We would stay there again.
We went to the Museo Egizio (Egyptian museum), the Museo Reali (the palace), and the Royal Library. I went to the Decorative Arts Museum while my spouse went to the Automobile Museum. We enjoyed all of them and on a future visit, we would try to see more including the Museo del Nazionale del Cinema which is in a magnificent building.
We very much enjoyed walking around the central city, lingering in the piazzas, and appreciating that it was not crowded with tourists; we were warmly welcomed everywhere. We walked a bit further to go to Peyrano Chocolatier.
We found several nice places to eat including across the street from our hotel, Diecicento; La Piola Sabauda (close to our hotel); Baratti & Milano; Cafe Mulassano; Ristorante Consorzia. Recommendations that we didn’t get to include Magazzino 52 and Tre Galline. We had casual meals at Eataly and the restaurant attached to the Rinascente store. Bicerin is a famous beverage there. The market at Porta Pallazzo is huge. And the gelato at Alberto Marchetti was sublime. There are many exceptional spots for coffee and chocolates to buy. Two sources I used for food and beverage ideas were Rome based Elizabeth Minchilli (she has a food guide for there) and Torino based Mimi Thorisson.
Claire, thanks for these recommendations. We'll be in Turin next year also staying at Grand Hotel Sitea. I've added your recommendations to my trip planning notes.
Glad to find this post. We also are planning trip to Milan and vicinity.
Our interests are: nature and art. We’ve been to south Italy twice including Amalfi coast and Rome, never been to Milan. We were thinking flying to Milan spend in vicinity 5-6 days ( mayby visit Lake District) and take a train to Rome ( heading home to Florida from there). I was wondering if it’s doable to include Cingue Terre while on the way to Rome via train.
TYIA.
My husband and I decided on a last minute trip to Italy also! We're flying in/out of Milan next week, but taking the train to Verona for 4 nights. Looking forward to seeing the Christmas markets in Verona and Bolzano. Does anyone have recommendations for restaurants in Verona and Bolzano? Thanks!
@AnnieD Since you're discussing different cities than the original poster you should start your own Verona and Bolzano question to get the best responses and keep from potentially highjacking this one!
I have some Verona insight I'd be happy to share with you over there,
=Tod
To: ligeyfman, if you have other questions, go ahead and start a new thead about wanting to stop in CT, your interests, how many days, etc and people will get back to you!!
Thanks SO much Claire for getting back with more details about your stay in Turin, those food recommendations look great, have added them to a large list of potential places! HUH, I don't HAVE to go to the automobile museum?? Hmmmm, I would much rather do just about anything else, great idea.
Sandancisco, you are most welcome! My spouse and I often go to different museums or wander separately at the same museum given slightly different interests. He did enjoy the automobile museum and I had the Decorative Arts museum almost completely to myself:)
