Turin Travel Guide: Baroque Capital, Chocolate & the Alps

Turin (Torino) is Italy’s most underrated major city. The former capital of the Savoy kingdom and the first capital of unified Italy (1861–1865) has a magnificently baroque city centre — arcaded piazzas, royal palaces, and wide boulevards planned by the Savoy court — that most foreign visitors don’t know exists. It also has the best chocolate in Italy, the Shroud of Turin, Italy’s finest film museum, and mountain scenery within an hour’s drive.

The city

Turin is built on a Roman grid. The arcades (portici) run for 18km — more than Bologna’s. Piazza Castello is the ceremonial heart, flanked by the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace), the Palazzo Madama, and the Duomo that houses the Shroud. Piazza San Carlo is the living room of the city — twin baroque churches at the far end, and the most famous chocolate shop, Caffè San Carlo, at the corner.

The Shroud of Turin

The Holy Shroud (Sindone) is kept in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. The linen cloth, believed by some to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, is only publicly displayed on special occasions; at other times a reproduction is exhibited. The Shroud Museum in the crypt has the most comprehensive permanent exhibition.

Museums

Museo Egizio — The most important Egyptian museum outside Cairo. The Savoy royal family collected Egyptian antiquities from the 17th century; the collection includes the intact Book of the Dead of Kha and 26,000 objects total.

Museo Nazionale del Cinema (Mole Antonelliana) — Inside Turin’s iconic spired tower, this film museum is one of the finest of its kind in the world. The panoramic lift to the summit gives the best view of the Alps.

Chocolate

Turin invented gianduia (hazelnut-chocolate paste, the ancestor of Nutella) and bicerin (a layered drink of espresso, chocolate, and cream). The historic pasticcerie on Via Po and Via Roma are the right places to try both.