Italy's Original Capital, Turin

When planning this trip, we made the decision to go visit Turin, because Bryan's favorite soccer team, Juventus, plays in this city. Plus, it is the original capital of Italy and has a lot of great history here as well. It was also home to the 2006 Winter Olympics. Yet, our favorite part about planning this was everyone asking where Turin is. :) For the record, Turin is in northern Italy, in the Piedmont region. It's about a 45 minute train ride, south and west of Milan.

About two weeks before we left, we went to purchase soccer tickets (that's when they become available) and had a hard time finding a reasonably priced ticket. Then, we came across the unfortunate news that the game had been rescheduled. Yup, we (mostly) planned this entire trip around that game, and now it was no longer. Since Juventus (had) been doing good earlier in the season, there was a chance they would have another game close to this one, so they changed the schedule and we missed out. We contemplated not going to Turin at all because of this change, but thought it would still be fun to visit this town since most people typically don't.

Hard to find this hotel

After getting off the train from Rome, we had about a 10 minute walk to our hotel. Well, it would have been 10 minutes if we could figure out where we were going. Again, I'll post more about the hotels later, but this one was a bit tricky to find. Nevertheless, we found our way and settled into our room. After cleaning up, we headed to dinner at one of our fave restaurants of the entire trip, Bottega Baretti. More to come about restaurants too, but just add this one to your list. Following dinner, we called it an early night. This was our first full night in Italy and after having gone to the Colosseum earlier in the day, we needed some sleep!

The next morning, we hit the streets of Turin. Since we were no longer going to the soccer game, we had the day to do what we wanted. A few blocks down from the hotel, we found a great cafe where I ordered my first Italian coffee and nutella-filled pastry. Trip made. We were staying in the San Salvario neighborhood, and just across the street from the cafe was an open air market. It was fun to wander through and see lots of local and handmade items for sale.

Mole Antonelliana

From there, we made our way through town, first visiting Mole Antonelliana. Mole in Italian is a building of monumental proportions, and this place is believed to be the largest museum in the world. What was once used as a synagogue, now houses the National Museum of Cinema.

Next we found our way to the Royal Palace of Turin, the former palace of the House of Savoy. The House of Savoy, led the unification of Italy and ruled the Kingdom of Italy until 1946. Their palace was then turned into a museum and became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997. The Royal Palace also is home to the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, which is believed to have the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin is believed to be the cloth that was used for the burial of Jesus. We chose not to go 'see' the Shroud of Turin, because it is buried in a thick wall with nothing to actually see. Instead we wandered the palace grounds and the public garden in the back. 

In the square of the Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale), is the Palazzo Madama. This housed the first Senate of the Italian Kingdom and is now home to a museum of ancient art of Turin. Heading south from here, we stopped in Piazza San Carlo, one of the more famous piazzas of Turin. Here, we finally had our first gelato of Italy. I know, I know, it took us this long to get some. But well worth the stop. :) And THEN we had lunch. Priorities!

Apreol spritz in the park

Following lunch, we went to Parco del Valentino, a giant green space. This spot reminded us exactly of Wash Park in Denver. Space to play volleyball, sit with friends, walk your dog, the list goes on. There were even small concession stands where you could order food or drink. It was here we decided we needed to try our first (and what ended up being only) Aperol spritz. Aperol spritz is a drink very popular in Italy, particularly in this part of the country, made of Aperol and prosecco. It was very bitter, so not our favorite thing, but at least we tried it! We sat under these beautiful trees and enjoyed the view of the River Po. 

After the park, we kept walking through town. Since we couldn't go to the Juventus game, we decided to try the next best thing and visit the Juventus store - had to see what we could get!

Following all of this walking, it was time for a drink! Also popular in Italy is called apertivo - basically our version of happy hour. The apertif was made famous in this part of Italy, the state of Piedmont. Most places you can purchase a drink and food comes along with it at no additional cost. We stopped at a place called Del Cambio Pharmacy that came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. We had a great spot outside on the square and relaxed and enjoyed the view. Following apertivo, we made our way back to the hotel so we could start thinking about dinner. We stopped at a variety of stores along the way, to window shop, but found out the hard way that a lot of places were closed since it was Sunday. It actually made our dinner choices that night slim as well.....twist our arm, we went back to Bottega Barretti for a second night. That's how much we loved it. :)
Turin was definitely a great town to explore - we had over 26,000 steps that day - so much to see! While I know it's not anywhere near the top of someone's list of places to visit in Italy, because it's so far off the beaten path and still has so much history, Bryan and I would definitely recommend you try to stop if your path takes you near it!