Planning a perfect two day Turin city break
We love Italy. We’ve enjoyed a road trip over Christmas in the fabulous country; lake holidays during summers; and met family at villas in Umbria and Tuscany. However, there is always more to discover. When looking at airports and best city breaks, the usual destinations are Venice, Milan, Rome, Pisa or Florence. We dug a little deeper and created our Turin itinerary as a city break stop as part of our European Road Trip 2022.
Where is Turin?
Turin is the capital of the Piedmont region of Italy. As with many other regions, Piedmont is world renowned for its wine. Being close to the Italian Alps, the drive to Turin is a stunning one. We had about 48 hours to sample Turin. Nowhere near enough time to see everything this vibrant city has to offer. We didn’t even make it to the Fiat factory made famous in the Italian Job. Having done research on the way, we created a very long list of aperitivo, museums, galleries and food we wanted to experience during our two day visit. This itinerary is great if you want to explore the cultural heartbeat of the city and mingle with the student scene that makes this city so dynamic.
First Night
Within a few hours we were checking in to a private room in an impressive Art Deco apartment round the corner from the Lavazza museum. We threw our bags in and went out in search of some highly rated aperitivo.
The Bar Pastis had the strongest Aperols and a chunk of the Berlin wall embedded in the floor so was the liveliest place. We found a great buffet aperitivo further up the road, and the Negronis were perfect. The area is a favourtie student hangout so drinks are affordable, opening hours late and the vibe very relaxed.
We did some late-night sight-seeing again with Jon on the hunt for the best gelato. More on that later!
Day One
Our full day in Turin was filled with walking the old arcades (with grand art deco arches and shop fronts all built during the 1930s). Ducking into some of the iconic cafes and bars for a coffee or bicerin. Bicerin is a local ‘delicacy’, a concoction of cocoa, coffee and (depending where you visit) a lot of cream. Perhaps an acquired taste, we didn’t see any locals drinking these.
The Gallery of Modern Art (GAM) was a fantastic stop with some Picasso and Chagalls as well as a contemporary exhibition of the World Photojournalism Awards. We spent hours here and left dazed afterwards. Jon loved the surrealist pieces; my favourite was a self-portrait as an owl. He’s clearly more of an art connoisseur than me. One piece kept eluding us. A plaque at the entrance read ‘8 Floors. Black paint on White’. It was repeated at each stairwell but we couldn’t understand what it referred to. Then we spotted tiny drawings and sayings around the various imperfections in the paint work of the gallery walls, ceilings and stairs. This sent us on a treasure hunt walking the staircases again looking for all the miniature pieces of art.
It was late in the afternoon when we emerged, dazed and dehydrated, from the gallery. We’d timed it badly, being in the dead siesta zone with all cafes shut. We picked up some fruit and headed to the Palazzo Reale and the Musei Reali. Animal statues filled the grounds, including a bench shaped like a beehive with bronze bees sitting beside us. We ate our grapes while watching the squirrels and the fountain. They lulled me into a nap while Jon caught up on some messages.
Slightly revived, Jon was eager to go to an independent cinema and suggested David Cronenberg’s ‘Crimes of the Future.’ After enjoying some street food together, I headed back to the apartment while Jon had his long-awaited cinema trip. Turin is a film lover’s dream destination and has many independent cinemas to choose from. Jon opted for Cinema Massimo.
Day Two
Our final morning in Turin was dedicated to Jon’s two great passions: coffee and film. First at the Lavazza Museum. Who knew there was so much to learn about coffee?! Some of the more entertaining exhibits included solutions to the problem of how to have coffee in space, and a vast mezzanine level focusing on advertising over the years. Here we learnt about a bizarrely gun toting, trigger happy Mexican character that had been the Lavazza mascot for decades. Eventually the tour ended with the chance to have a coffee. We listened to the barista describe the options and I felt a bit of a philistine asking for a cappuccino.
The film museum was equally vast and was housed in the iconic tower of Mole Antonelliana. A relic from the Fascist era, with swastikas engraved in the coving. A sign explained that the museum chose to maintain the original architecture as a lesson from history. It contributed to a strange feeling of being in the past and an imagined version of the future at the same time as a panoramic lift soared through the atrium and film scores and dramatic lighting filled the space. Behind a series of elaborate, themed doorways, an eclectic collection of memorabilia, film screens and interactive sets paid homage to different genres.
The main attraction for Jon was the temporary Dario Argento exhibition that wound around the outer walls over 5 storeys. I preferred the animatronic dalmatian (from 102 Dalmatians) and the Jurassic Park production designs. It was a fabulously impressive experience and the second museum in as many days that we ended up spending hours in. An additional entry fee would allow access to a panoramic terrace with views across Turin.
“A panoramic lift soared through the atrium and film scores and dramatic lighting filled the space.”
We’d certainly made the most of our short stay in Turin but could easily have spent a whole week there. We had to have one last gelato for the road before leaving Italy. We found a brilliant place, Aria, where school children were queueing for their end of school treat. I had peanut and lime, Jon had chocolate hazelnut. Both were extremely good. A dog looked at us enviously before the boy holding his lead gave him a taste of his.
Lauren
Lauren is a qualified teacher, theatre practitioner and writer. Her proudest moments include taking a student expedition team to Ecuador, drafting her first novel and recently reaching the top of a climbing wall. Lauren loves travelling, having treated herself to a trip of the Trans-Siberian railroad for her 30th birthday, she is now looking forward to being in Japan for her 40th. Together with Jon, Lauren has enjoyed plenty of adventures from a road trip around Cuba to diving in the Galapagos Islands. Lauren is now working hard to write full time whilst being available for teaching and tutoring sessions, specialising in Shakespeare.