4 weeks from now (burglars take note!) I'll be flying down to Turin, Italy for a 5-day stay, can't believe it'll be 5 years since I was there - and then it was just a day trip from Milan! So this time, we'll try to really get to know the city. Just this morning, I pre-booked our Torino+Piemonte cards for free and reduced admissions to many attractions, and we've been mapping out the days to make sure we see all we want to see, but in a relaxed tempo. As a former royal city, longtime capital of the Duchy of Savoy, and for a much briefer time, the first capital of a united Italy, it has plenty of palaces; in addition, there is its famed industrial past as the seat of automotive giant FIAT (the "T" stands for Turin), and the city boasts the world's second largest (after Cairo) collection of Egyptian antiques. We plan to visit the royal palace of Venaria, and the hunting palace at Stupinigi, both on the outskirts of town. Also, we will likely spend one full day in the Piemontese countryside, in one of the smaller cities dotting the Monferrato and Langhe regions.
Any SGs, Hopefuls, or Members from Turin available to meet for aperitivo? Just kidding, somehow that almost never works out. But I'm grateful for any offbeat recommendations... to add to the ones in the book "111 places you need to see in Turin and Piemont", which includes places such as the "pierced house". Turin, or so I've read, is a battleground of unseen forces of good and evil, so who knows whom or what we may encounter there...
Here's the city's landmark Mole Antonelliana, home of the fabulous Italian Movie Museum
We also most definitely plan to down daily doses of "bicerin", an addictive concoction of coffee, chocolate, and cream:
