Four cities absorb almost all of Italy's visitors, and the one that sits an hour west of Milan gets driven past. Turin was the first capital of united Italy, holds an Egyptian collection older than Cairo's own and usually ranked second only to it, gave the world vermouth and the aperitivo, and closes half its avenues with a wall of Alps. It is cheaper than Rome, Florence, Venice or Milan, and far emptier. The arcades run for kilometres, built so the Savoy court could cross the city without getting wet.
Getting in is easier than the obscurity suggests. Caselle airport lies north of the city with its own station, and trains run into Porta Susa about every half hour on a rebuilt line, with a shuttle bus as the alternative. Fast services reach Milan in about an hour, and the direct high-speed train from Paris runs again through the Fréjus tunnel after a landslide closed it for over a year, though engineering work still interrupts the service, so check before building a trip around it. Italy travel sits inside the Schengen rules, where borders now take fingerprints and a facial image instead of a stamp and an online authorisation for visa-exempt visitors is coming, so check what applies to your passport. Rooms cost noticeably less than in the famous four. It pays to compare flights and hotels for Turin and to treat the city as a base for Piedmont rather than a stop between other places.
The Museo Egizio alone justifies the journey: floors of statuary, papyri and an intact craftsman's tomb, in the oldest museum anywhere devoted to ancient Egypt. Above the rooftops stands the Mole Antonelliana, a spired brick tower never intended to hold a cinema museum and now holding one, with a glass lift running up the dome to a viewing platform. The Duomo keeps the Shroud of Turin, displayed publicly only on rare occasions, so what visitors normally see is the chapel and a photographic copy.
The Savoy legacy is the other thread through the city. Palazzo Reale anchors Piazza Castello in the centre, and outside town the hunting palaces, chiefly the Reggia di Venaria and the Palazzina di Stupinigi, share one UNESCO listing with the residences in town. Out at Lingotto the old Fiat factory that Le Corbusier admired keeps its test track on the roof, banked curves and all, and you can walk it.
Where you stay is a question of atmosphere. Around Piazza Castello, historic and mid-range hotels sit at the door of Palazzo Reale and the arcades. In the Quadrilatero Romano, boutique hotels and apartment rentals fill the grid of lanes beside Porta Palatina, where the aperitivo bars are thickest. In San Salvario, guesthouses and cheaper apartments cluster between Porta Nuova station and the Parco del Valentino. Out at Lingotto, modern hotels stand in and around the converted factory, useful for the trade fairs and the rooftop track.
As a city break the services that repay booking are transfers, timed tickets and day trips rather than a hire car, which is a burden here: the centre is a restricted traffic zone and the metro, trams and buses cover everything cheaply. Reserve a slot at the Museo Egizio, because the queue is real. For day trips, the Sassi to Superga rack tramway climbs to the basilica on its hill for the Alpine panorama, though it returned only recently after a long closure and does not run every day, with a bus covering it when it is off. South of the city lie the Langhe wine hills, another UNESCO landscape, about an hour away, easiest by organised tour or by train and bus. It costs nothing to check museum ticket and day trip prices, and keep the evenings free.
Season matters more here than on a coast. Spring and autumn are the comfortable windows, and autumn adds the white truffle season around Alba, an hour south. Summer runs hot and humid, with many restaurants and shops shutting through August. Winter is cold and often foggy, but the city answers with light installations above the streets over Christmas and Alpine ski resorts inside a two-hour drive. The book fair in spring and the film festival in late autumn are the weeks the hotels fill. Then there are the evenings, which are the actual point. Order a vermouth or a bitter before dinner and the bar will feed you, generously and at no extra cost, a habit this city claims to have invented. Follow it with gianduiotto, the hazelnut chocolate created when a Napoleonic blockade made cocoa scarce, and a bicerin, the layered coffee, chocolate and cream drink in a small glass. Personally, I would give Turin three nights, spend one of them doing nothing but the aperitivo circuit, and drop the tick list altogether on the last day.
Q: Why visit Turin instead of Milan or Florence?
A: It costs less and holds far fewer visitors, while offering world-class museums, royal palaces, an Alpine backdrop and the birthplace of vermouth, all in a centre you can walk.
Q: Can you see the Shroud of Turin?
A: Normally no. The cloth is kept in the Duomo and displayed publicly only on rare occasions, so visitors usually see the chapel and a photographic copy.
Q: Do you need a car in Turin?
A: No. The metro, trams and buses are cheap and thorough, the centre is a restricted traffic zone, and trains or organised tours reach the palaces and the wine hills.
Q: What are the best day trips from Turin?
A: The Reggia di Venaria and the Palazzina di Stupinigi, the Basilica of Superga on its hill for the Alpine panorama, and the Langhe vineyards about an hour south.
Q: When is the best time to visit Turin?
A: Spring and autumn are the most comfortable, with autumn bringing the truffle season nearby. Summer is hot and many places close through August, while winter is cold and foggy but lively over Christmas.
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