(October 2024)
It’s been a different type of weekend this weekend, one that does not involve a backpack but does involve a bit of make up and some nice clothes for once!
Our best friends and we made a pact about two or three years ago to aim to try and get away together more often. Rather than buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas, the idea was that we’d go somewhere. We got off to a great start going to Bruxelles which (to our horror) was 2019. Obviously a pandemic and kids going to university and life got in the way in the interim.
This weekend, however, we stayed true to our little drunken New Year pact and packed (oh god, I am sorry!) our cabin bags for our trip to Turin. We flew with BA from Gatwick for £1 and a few airmiles!
Our hotel was The Boston Art Hotel which is about 3/4 mile out of the main city, but it’s on the 16 tram route if you wanted to experience the tram. We did this on day two as it was pouring down and we’d finally discovered that google isn’t always your friend and you CAN use a card on on the transport network and you don’t need cash.
Turin is situated under the shadow of the alps and the Gran Paradiso National Park with Chamonix just the other side. Mont Blanc and possibly even the Matterhorn are visible on good days. We didn’t see them from Turin, but I took these pics on the way home on the flight!
Modern day Turin was found (in a nutshell) by the Savoy family and was basically ruled by them as an absolute monarchy. All the facades of the houses are very similar within the city and it is inside that the families were allowed to be flamboyant. Apparently being a Turino means to not flaunt oneself and be vulgar and this has carried on today with Turinos being very modest people and not showing off and even shop fronts such as MacDonalds having to fight (and lose) to have their normal shop front or Prada to have any other bags than plain white ones! The phrase of the weekend if we saw anyone showing off such as revving their engine in a Maserati or wearing obvious designer labels, was ‘well they’re clearly not Turino’s!’
We started the weekend joining an excellent free walking tour hosted by Laura. We were going to take the open top bus, something we often do in cities as it helps you to get your bearings, get a bit of history and decide where you might want to go. However, they can be pricey. Laura’s tour was excellent though. For a little over 2 hours she walked us all over the city and explained the history.
We visited the Royal Palace on day two. This houses, many different museums with all the items that the family collected over the years. The highlights for me were Boticelli’s Venus and some Syrian antiquities. The museum also houses the shroud (allegedly) but whilst you are directed to a chamber with the huge black casket below, the actual shroud is downstairs in the chapel after it was reclaimed by the church. Again, there is a long story attached to it and you need to believe what you will.
The highlight of the trip, however, had to be the food and wine. Turin prides itself on its slow food. Truffles are also a staple. Put those two together and you get some unbelievably delectable dishes that will entice even the non-meat lovers to try meat or the vegephobes to eat vegetables.
We ate the first night at a restaurant called Marchese. We ended up there by chance as the restaurant we’d hoped to eat at was fully booked for the Saturday although we got a seat for the Sunday evening. Turin is packed full of really excellent restaurants that mostly serve genuine Piedmont food. The evening starts around 6.30 with aperitivos that people go out for, a cocktail or glass of wine with nibbles and then people proceed on later (much later) for some beautiful food. The second evening (I didn’t get any photos as we were too busy chowing down) we went to Tabui a truffle restaurant just behind the main square. It was clearly a popular choice as we ate there Sunday instead of Saturday as, despite not having many tourists in Turin, they were fully booked (always a great sign if the locals are keeping you away as they are eating there!).
Obviously to go with such incredible scran you need an incredible wine. Barolo is the most well known wine of the area, however, the price tag matches its popularity. We, instead opted for a ‘Freisa‘ wine which is also local to Turin. The original Freisa wine there were only 5000 bottles made, obviously we didn’t have a bottle of that, however we tried ‘Kye’ which, in my wine snob language, was bloody yummy!
Obviously alongside great wine and great food, Turin has another secret, it is the home of Lavazza coffee. With this coffee they make a drink known as Bicerin. Laura advised us to have it mid morning or we’d want to sleep if we had it any later. Bicerin is coffee on the base, a bitter molten chocolate as the next layer and then ‘milk-cream‘ on the top and you are not supposed to stir, just drink the coffee through the layers. We were advised to find the original style as the modern versions use whip. Unfortunately whilst we thought we’d found a really old cafe serving Bicerin, it did appear to come with a much thicker cream than we were expecting so drinking through was not going to happen without the aid of a spoon.
Finally, if you find yourself in Turin and don’t want to eat in a restaurant, I would highly recommend the market. The modern section of the covered market is now a food hall and it does all things Italy (and some Japanese!). We found the pasta and pizza there to be divine! Hubby and BFF’s hubby also decided they needed to try a Caffè corretto which basically translates to a ‘corrected coffee’, to those not in the know, that means coffee and then a liqueur that you get served in a little glass and you add. At the covered market, this means a large serving of grappa!!
So, there you have it. A weekend of walking and gastronomy in Turin for a £1 flight. I now need to spend the next three weeks at the gym, working off the calories!
