Turin must be one of the traveller’s most over-looked cities in Europe. Sitting astride the Lombardy Plain, with the towering backdrop of the Alps and good transport connections, it provides one of the most easily accessible and attractive cities in Western Europe, yet nobody seems to go there – or certainly no Brits. Oldgreytravel’s fruitless search for a guide book to the city provided further evidence, the only one found dating from 2006 when the city hosted the Winter Olympics. Even more intriguing was the discovery in a Turin bookshop of a city guide by a major international guide book franchise that was printed in Italian, but nobody had thought worthwhile to print as an English edition.
So what does Turin have to offer the traveller? First, great accessibility. Connected by numerous flights to many UK cities, the airport is a breeze with quick transfer into the city centre by express bus or train. For those with a bit more time, there is a fast express train from Paris several times a day. Second, affordability – not being a big tourist centre helps. Turin is one of the major industrial and economic powerhouses of Italy, there are a lot of hotels and bargains are to be had, particularly at off peak times for business travel (see oldgreytravel’s post on Lingotto, April 2017).
OK, so it is easy to get to and not expensive, but what is there to do there? Industrial and economic powerhouse doesn’t sound that enticing. Well, you may be surprised to find that Turin city centre is one of the most elegant and refined in Europe, owing as much to French influences as its native Italy. It was, after all, the capital of Savoy (including much of south east France) for some 400 years before Italian unification. The Dukes of Savoy were determined that their capital city would emulate the other great cities of Europe and in the C16 and C17 commenced one of the first great town planning projects, laying out the centre on a geometric grid interspersed with squares and palaces, churches and other public buildings. A particular feature of the planned development was the ample use of arcades to shade pedestrians from the sun in hot weather and from the rain and snow in the cold winters and they have now become a defining feature of Turin, admired and appreciated by all.
Within this beautiful townscape, there are an extraordinary number of excellent musuems. None more so than the Museo Egizio, the largest and finest collection of Egyptian art and antiquities outside Cairo and one of the stand-out attractions of the city. However, there is also the Museum of Reunification celebrating Italy’s birth as a nation (in which Turin played a significant part), the National Museum of the Automobile (fantastic and an Italian obsession), the Museum of Cinema in the extraordinary Mole Antonelliana (worth a visit in its own right) and numerous other museums, art galleries and restored palaces (many converted to public use). In the south of the city, the extraordinary Lingotto with its famous roof top test track and the Agnelli’s private art collection, which not only has several Modigliani’s but also provides direct access onto the roof top. And that’s not even mentioning the Turin Shroud.
Getting around the city is easy, the centre walkable and the excellent metro serves Lingotto and the adjacent museums to the south of the centre. Food and drink, of course, are excellent, this is where vermouth was invented and Martini have been mass producing for over 150 years from its Turin base. The shopping is extensive, dazzlingly exotic and chic.
In short, what is not to like.
