Turin

Turin, Italy

The Mole Antonelliana rises above the city streets at sunrise, framed by a foreground balcony railing.

Turin keeps Savoy palaces, an Egyptian museum and porticoed streets between the River Po and the Alps.

The place

Turin is Piedmont's capital, a working city and a cultural one in the north of Italy. Italian speakers call it Torino. The River Po runs along its eastern side, the water having already left the Susa Valley, and the Alps bend around the western horizon. Superga hill stands over the plain. About 842,000 people live in the city proper, at an elevation of 239 metres. The wider Metropolitan City of Turin takes its name from this centre.

Savoy planners gave the middle of Turin its straight streets and deep porticoes, built so a court city could be crossed in the rain. Piazza Castello is the main stage: Palazzo Madama occupies the middle of the square, stone and later façades reflected in the paving when it is wet. A little to the side, the old royal palace closes one edge of the same royal quarter. From Monte dei Cappuccini the view runs across roofs to the mountains, and the brick spire of the Mole Antonelliana is a tall vertical line. Down by the parks, the Borgo Medievale shows timber and plaster houses, quite unlike the baroque grid.

Turin still earns its living. Shops and offices share the arcades with cafés, and the riverbank is for walking rather than for docks. For museums, civic news and the practical details a visit depends on, the comune publishes everything at its own website.

Its story

Turin's story starts with the Taurini, Celto-Ligurian people of the Alpine fringe who held the upper valley of the Po, where Piedmont now sits. Hannibal, allied with the Insubres, turned on them and seized Taurasia, their chief town. After that defeat the Taurini barely appear in written history. On the same ground Rome planted a colony, Julia Augusta Taurinorum, and that Latin name is the root of Torino.

Power then changed hands many times: the late Roman empire, the kingdoms that replaced it in the west, Lombard kings, and the Carolingian empire. The March of Ivrea and, after it, the March of Turin carried the city into the medieval politics of the region. The House of Savoy brought it into the County of Savoy and afterwards the Duchy of Savoy. Turin served as the ducal capital and remained the dynasty's seat once the Savoys were kings of Sardinia.

When Italy was being argued into one state, Turin was where much of the politics and the writing happened. The Count of Cavour, Camillo Benso, is the figure most closely linked with that effort, and people still call it Italy's cradle of liberty. For a short time Turin was the kingdom's first seat of government. In the Fascist decades it became a base for opposition, the resistance included. The republic that followed left the Savoy street plan in place and the city as Piedmont's capital.

What to see

Culture

Turin's culture is still arranged around the Savoy residences. Besides the royal palace, kept for Madama Reale Christine Marie of France and used by the dynasty as its official home, the centre holds Palazzo Madama, Palazzo Carignano, Palazzo Chiablese, the Royal Armoury and the Royal Library. Villa della Regina and the Castello del Valentino sit a little further out, and the hunting lodge at Stupinigi continues the same courtly map beyond the city boundary. These are houses first and museums second, which is why the rooms feel furnished rather than merely hung with pictures.

Other collections pull in different directions. The Egyptian museum is a whole ancient world indoors. CAMERA devotes its space to photography, rotating a few exhibitions through the year. The Risorgimento museum, in the palace where the kingdom's first parliament sat, keeps the political memory that gave Turin its liberty nickname. Later, under Fascism, the city sheltered anti-fascist networks and the resistance, so local culture is argument as well as gilt.

In Turin's churches and royal apartments, keep your voice down, cover shoulders and knees, and ask before photographing people at prayer or at work.

What to wear

Fashion in Turin splits cleanly between the court wardrobe and the clothes on the street. Traditional dress, in the sense of a living folk costume, is not what the centre wears. Silk coats, embroidered waistcoats, lace cuffs and jewels appear in Savoy portraits and in the royal collections; they marked rank at court and at ceremonies, and the textiles were the luxury trades of a capital — silk, fine wool, linen and metal thread. Mountain districts above the Po kept a plainer rural clothing of wool for cold slopes, but that clothing now lives in collections and memory, not on Piazza Castello on a weekday.

On the street now, Turin dresses as a northern business city. Coats and scarves in the cold months, lighter jackets when the plain warms up, dark or muted colours under the porticoes, and shoes fit for walking stone. Office hours look pressed rather than flashy. Weekend crowds dress down a little, though trainers and a formal museum rarely mix well.

A visitor does well with layers and a scarf. Mornings under the Alps can feel sharp even when the afternoon is mild, and the porticoes only block rain, not wind. Churches and the royal rooms expect covered shoulders and knees. Sensible shoes handle cobbles and long galleries; heavy hiking boots can wait for a day in the hills.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. April, May, September and October, when the centre is pleasant for walking. Summer on the Po plain runs warmer, and winter brings colder air off the Alps, so those months suit the museums better than long days outside.

How long. 3–4

Getting there. Fly into Turin airport at Caselle. A station, Caselle Aeroporto, sits under the terminal, and buses run to Porta Susa and Porta Nuova, the central railway stations. Fares and timetables change, so check them before travel; the comune site is http://www.comune.torino.it/.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources