We are an older couple, mobile but not overly so. We're interested in restaurant recommendations, art museums, festivals, markets and historic information. We would welcome your suggestions on any of these topics. I've consulted the blog and while generalizations are helpful, what I'm hoping for are suggestions based on personal experiences. We will be there in the fall of 17 (Sept) and are hoping for good weather. Thanks for your help.
Steve B
We visited Torino 3 years ago and loved it. It is a beautiful city and is a rather flat, so found walking around to be pretty easy. There are many historical palaces you can visit. Plus a great opera house. There us also a great tram and bus system. We visited the rather new Fiat museum which is a short metro/train ride (I can't remember which one it is). The museum is great if you like cars. It's also close to one of the first Eataly stores- a good place for food gifts and an informal lunch or dinner. I remember I got an amazing glass of Barollo (sp?) wine for only 6 euros. Wish I could remember the names of where we ate. But I do remember one informal trattoria, recommended by Fred Plotkin, that was wonderful. If I find the name, I'll send it to you. We often talk about how we'd love to go back to Torino. Have you seen the Fred Plotkin book, Italy for the Gourmet Traveler? He has several good recommendations for many places in Italy. Our library has a copy. It's a big book, so I make copies or write down the places we want to visit.
I agree that Torino's tram system is good, having used it with my parents about 3 years ago. We definitely liked the Auto museum and Eataly combination (two topics always of interest in our family). The Egyptian museum is and important one and I think now finished with their remodel; you can take an elevator to the top floor and work your way down. I was quite interested to visit the Cinema museum, but after actually visiting, I don't count it as a must-see. The Risorgimento museum would be adored by historians for it's wealth of historical artifacts and documents, but there wasn't much info in English. I do think the information on the Shroud of Turin is quite powerful, but you won't see the actual item. On a clear day, do go up to a scenic viewpoint, whether it's the Mole Antonelliana tower at the Cinema museum or up the hill to Santa Maria della Monte. For this portion of our trip, we used the Lonely Planet chapter, sold as a stand-alone PDF download on their web site.
If you go on a Saturday, or even on weekdays during the morning, be sure to visit the Porta Palazzo market, it's a huge market with fruits, vegetables, cheese, meat, fish, a really nice experience. If you go on a Sunday, visit the Balon, a street market where it's possible to find antiques and particular objects, clothes and accessories.
Walk around the Quadrilatero Romano, the oldest quarter of the city, filled with restaurants. Try the Bicerin, a chocolate liquor coffee beverage.
It's a really beautiful city to walk around!
We stayed for two days in Torino last September and loved our time there. We stayed at the Hotel TownHouse 70 which was very close to the Palazzo Reale. We went through the Palazzo Reale & associated art museum, my husband went up the glass elevator in the Mole A., and we took a bus and tram up to Superga for a nice view & lunch at their restaurant - recommend all of those sites.
The city has lots of beautiful architecture and places to walk, if you're interested. I would have liked to also see Palazzo Madame, but we didn't have time. It's in the same piazza as Palazzo Reale.
We really enjoyed a free music choral event that was happening that weekend in all of the churches, etc. with a grand finale in one of the piazzas with everyone (locals & us) singing different types of music together.
Overall, we noticed the city was less expensive than similar cities. Our modern hotel room had a sitting room separated from the bed and an expansive bathroom. The breakfast buffet choices were one of the best on our trip, also.
Not knowing the rest of your plans, I will also highly recommend our next stop. We took the train from Torino to Annecy, France. It's a beautiful, relaxing quaint town on a lake with mountain views all around.
Restaurants: We ate our last dinner at L'Acino Restaurant (checked TripAdvisor before we left our hotel that night), and the food was excellent. For most dinners, we just wander around the outdoor restaurants and stop at one where the food looks good. I don't remember any bad meals in Torino.
I forgot to mention that there's a really interesting armor & horse armor, etc. display in a long room in the Palazzo Reale. I have some great photographs from that room.
I love Turin too; Laura and others have covered the highlights there, so here's an interesting idea for a side trip. Sacra di San Michele is Piedmont's official monument. It's been a pilgrimage site for 1000 years. It's about 10 miles (17 km) west of Turin, perched on a cliff. It's fabulous to wander around, few tourists, and pretty easy to get to. It's also accessible, with dropoff from a car at the elevator for mobility-impaired folks, or a short walk (not tooo steep but uphill) from the parking lot. I'm sure there are transportation options from Turin, but I know there is a train station in the nearest town (Avigliana) and cabs or a shuttle bus from there. Have a great trip.
