Turin 7-day itinerary

1. Stop 1

   Palazzo Reale

   The Palace was built in the 16th century, modernised in the 17th and converted to a museum in 1946. The result is a wacky hybrid of medieval, baroque and bling. You enter via the palace gardens to reach the ticket office. The ticket covers five attractions: - Galleria Sabauda houses the vast art collection of the rulers of Savoy. - Chapel of the Shroud is accessed this way, and from a gallery looks into the Cathedral. - Royal Apartments: gilt, red flock, chandeliers, vast paintings, and everything else to impress.

2. Stop 2

   Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

   This museum is within Palazzo Madama on Piazza Castello. It's misnamed, as the art collection is Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, and more ancient (eg Byzantine) work is elsewhere.

3. Stop 3

   CAMERA – Italian Centre for Photography

   Impressive quality photography, with 3 or 4 exhibitions a year.

4. Stop 4 · 9 min walk

   Museo Egizio

   "The road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin" said Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion about Museo Egizio in Turin, second only in order of importance to the one in Cairo. Many artifacts were collected by Bernardino Drovetti (1776 - 1852) when he was consul of France in Egypt.

5. Stop 5 · 4 min walk

   Risorgimento Museum

   Fascinating exposition of the tumultuous birth of modern Italy, set in the very building where many events took place: Carlo Alberto and Vittorio Emanuele II were born here, and the first Italian parliament sat here. Garibaldi's campaign was in the context of revolutions and upheavals all over Europe, the greatest of all being the Industrial Revolution. It was a very literary and graphic age, so events are vividly shown in film, photos, political cartoons and other artefacts.

6. Stop 6 · 4 min walk

   Galleria d'Italia

   Galleria d'Italia is a museum chain to show off the art owned by Intesa Sanpaolo bank, the modern nobility. The Turin branch, opened in 2022, is in the Palazzo Turinetti di Pertengo and mostly displays photography. Their others are in Milan, Naples and Vicenza.

Eat · Grom: Renowned ice cream chain. Their other outlets are on Via Accademia delle Scienze, Via Garibaldi, Corso Romania and Via Nizza.

1. Stop 1

   Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile

   The collection houses over 170 vehicles, from 18th-century carriages to Formula 1 racers, and lots of gorgeous red sports cars.

2. Stop 2 · 27 min walk

   Museum of Criminal Anthropology

   Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) was convinced that criminality was inherited, little influenced by environment and that criminals could be distinguished by their ugly atavistic features. It therefore followed that any ethnic group that didn't fit Italian concepts of beauty was inferior and should be subjugated. And women should be subjugated by men, as their much lower rate of criminal offending proved that, um, well anyway because they should.

3. Stop 3 · 24 min walk

   Museo Nazionale della Montagna Duca degli Abruzzi

   History of alpine mountaineering.

4. Stop 4 · 42 min walk

   Museum of The New Prison

   Spooky museum of prisons and punishments. Visit by guided tour; booking is recommended, and essential for the descent into the air raid shelter.

5. Stop 5 · 23 min walk

   Museum of Oriental Art

   This museum houses art from Kandahar, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. The third floor shows Buddhist and Tibetan culture. The fourth floor is Islamic and Arabian, mainly bronzes, ceramics and tiles.

6. Stop 6 · 4 min walk

   Museum of the Shroud

   The original Sindone or Turin Shroud is in safekeeping in the Cathedral and rarely displayed. This small museum displays a copy and studies the Shroud. It's a remarkable object whatever it is, a 4.4 x 1.1 m winding sheet charred by fire and appearing to bear the likeness of a man, matching the Gospel description of the crucifixion of Jesus. Multiple tests have produced contradictory results, or at least contradictory interpretations.

Eat · Piola Cianci: Popular place for fast inexpensive antipasti and main meals.

1. Stop 1

   Museo Ettore Fico

   Only open for temporary exhibitions, but with a small permanent display of the work of Ettore Fico (1917-2004).

2. Stop 2 · 62 min walk

   Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

   Art exhibition gallery in a former automobile factory and outdoor sculpture park.

3. Stop 3 · 50 min walk

   MACA

   Science museum, child-oriented, limited English signage.

4. Stop 4 · 34 min walk

   Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist

   Large elegant cathedral dating from late 15th century, enlarged in the 17th to create the Chapel for the Shroud of Turin. However this chapel (rebuilt after a fire in 1997) is nowadays accessed as part of a tour of Palazzo Reale and can't be seen from the Cathedral; visit the nearby Sindone Museum to see a copy of the Shroud.

5. Stop 5 · 6 min walk

   Chapel of the Merchants

   A jewel of baroque architecture and sacred art built from 1680 by businessmen anxious to sanctify their dealings - they were, let's stress, "The Pious Congregation of Bankers, Shopkeepers and Merchants of Turin." One theme of the decor is the Magi, bearing the trade valuables without which the Christian church couldn't exist. The chapel was created within Chiesa dei Santi Martiri, a 16th-century Jesuit church. Its best-known artefact is the "calendario perpetuo" made by Giovanni Amedeo Plana in 1831.

6. Stop 6

   Santa Maria di Monte dei Cappuccini

   A late-Renaissance-style church on a hill overlooking the River Po. It was built 1583 to 1656 for the Capuchin Friars; the delay was through plague and the occasional war. A miracle supposedly occurred in 1640 during the French assault on Turin, when troops seizing the church were repulsed by a sheet of holy flame from the tabernacle. They slew all the defenders anyhow, no doubt in a faith-affirming sort of way. Cannonballs stuck in the walls recall the assaults of 1706 and 1799.

Eat · Focacceria Lagrange: Nice place to eat light and crispy focaccia. Fast service. Mostly takeaway but they have a few tables inside and out.

1. Stop 1

   San Lorenzo

   This church was built from 1634 by Guarino Guarini to a complex baroque design, where square basilica plan and Grecian cross segues into circular, octagonal and elliptical forms. This creates a striking light-play, especially in the dome, which Guarini might not be pleased to know is dubbed faccia del diavolo, the face of the devil.

2. Stop 2 · 20 min walk

   Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio

   A neo-classical miniature pantheon at the far end of Vittorio Emanuele I bridge, closing off the view down Via Po. It was built to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon and return of the Savoy monarchy in 1814, but only completed in 1831.

3. Stop 3 · 100 min walk

   Mausoleo della Bela Rosin

   Rosa Vercellana (1833-1885) became the mistress of the future Victor Emmanuel II and had two children by him before she was 16. She was made a countess when his legitimate wife and queen died in 1855, and in 1869 when the king thought he himself might die, he hurriedly married Rosa. It was a morganatic marriage, so it conferred no crown or right of succession on her or her children. He survived to do the same thing over in 1877, likewise morganatic, then died.

4. Stop 4 · 108 min walk

   Porta Palatina

   Porta Palatina is a listed stop in this neighborhood.

5. Stop 5 · 9 min walk

   Galleria Subalpina

   Galleria Subalpina is a listed stop in this neighborhood.

6. Stop 6 · 10 min walk

   Piazza Giambattista Bodoni

   Piazza Giambattista Bodoni is a listed stop in this neighborhood.

Eat · Gofreria Piemontèisa: Gofri are waffles Piedmont style, thin with sweet or savoury fillings.

1. Stop 1

   La Venaria Reale

   Built as a royal hunting lodge from 1675, this grew and grew into a humonguous bling palace, trying to outshine Versailles. It became a barracks and was knocked about in Napoleonic times, remaining military until the 1930s, then the vandals set about it. Restoration was piecemeal until 1996, then a ten-year project brought it back to its former baroque opulence. Highlights include the Salone di Diana, the Galleria Grande, the chapel of Sant’Uberto and the Scuderie (stables). The Gardens are a modern re-imagining.

2. Stop 2 · 32 min walk

   La Mandria

   The "hunting lodge" grew into such a vast palace that what was needed was a new hunting lodge. However, King Victor Emmanuel II needed somewhere to ensconce his mistress La Bela Rosin, so this new lodge in turn became so big and blinged up that . . . life can be really tough when you're a plutocrat monarch. Wild boar, deer and rare breeds of horse roam the park, which has multiple access points. In the 20th century it acquired a golf course and a motor-racing track.

3. Stop 3 · 201 min walk

   Basilica of Superga

   This hilltop basilica was built in thanksgiving for the 1706 defeat of the French at Turin. Often incorrectly called a cathedral, it's in sort-of-classical-with-baroque style, and houses the tombs of many nobles of the House of Savoy. Superga hill derives its name from Serrapergia meaning "mountain between the hills". Nearby is a monument to the air crash of 1949, which wiped out Torino FC.

4. Stop 4 · 61 min walk

   Infini.to

   Two shows midweek and three at weekends, only in Italian.

5. Stop 5 · 63 min walk

   Villa della Regina

   A royal palace and gardens on a hill east edge of the city. It's modest by Savoyard standards but plush with Chinese and Baroque interiors. This reflects the era of Anne Marie d'Orléans, in residence from 1692. Next to the Villa, the Queen's vineyard has been productive since the 1600s, and its "Freisa di Chieri DOC - Villa della Regina" red wine is on sale here.

6. Stop 6 · 86 min walk

   Moncalieri Castle

   This castle was built as a fortress by Thomas I of Savoy, but enlarged into a pleasure palace in the mid-15th century. From the 19th century it was especially used by queen mothers and princesses. Today it houses the Carabinieri, though the castle and its apartments can be visited. Reservation required.

Eat · La Stuzzicheria: Good local good pizza and excellent farinata.

1. Stop 1

   Savigliano

   Listed as a next stop from Turin. Check the regional train or bus the night before.

2. Stop 2

   Courmayeur

   Listed as a next stop from Turin. Check the regional train or bus the night before.

3. Stop 3

   Aosta

   Listed as a next stop from Turin. Check the regional train or bus the night before.

Eat · Pack snacks from town. Do not count on a full menu at a small station.

1. Stop 1

   Parco Pietro Colletta

   Parco Pietro Colletta is a listed stop in this neighborhood.

2. Stop 2

   Teatro Regio

   The city opera house is active Oct-June. It was opened in 1740 but burned down in 1936. Reconstruction took until 1973, with a modern building behind the original facade, seating 1500.

3. Stop 3

   Teatro Carignano

   The city's oldest and premier theatre, opened in 1753. It was wrecked by fire in 1786 but swiftly rebuilt to the original plan, and from 1936 to 1973 it was the opera house during Teatro Regio's lengthy closure.

4. Stop 4

   Teatro Colosseo

   A modern concert hall seating 1500.

Eat · Go back to a place that already worked.