Turin in one day, on its most beautiful day, Saturday. What to do on the weekend in Turin between shopping, coffee and bicerin, in a city, the living room of Italy, to be discovered
Turin has changed clothes, stopped the gray suit and became trendy, and in recent years it has started to have a more varied, colorful wardrobe, the nightlife has turned on in some neighborhoods but the elegance of the Savoy architecture has kept intact the its charm.
Il Saturday morning in Turin start with a coffee in one of the many historic bars: if you arrive from Porta Nuova, which is the main station, you will immediately find yourself in the center. In front of you you will have Piazza Carlo Felice, but the facade of the station is worth a long look. Stay on the left side and take a coffee at Roma already Talmone: the counter is still original and the pastry is sublime.
With a full stomach you will be ready to trot down Via Roma with its sparkling shop windows. His arcade allow you to indulge in obsessive compulsive shopping for 607 meters even in case of pouring rain and, to make it more fascinating, some shops have kept the original windows. Cross the beautiful Piazza San Carlo, rightly defined 'the living room of Turin': on the occasion of the 2006 Olympics the square was completely pedestrianized, so you can really enjoy it to the full.
I recommend staying with your nose up and admiring the facades of the buildings that surround you: for example, the house where Vittorio Alfieri lived can be found in the last stretch of the arcades before the church of San Carlo. Here you can appreciate a bit of Turin history even in the most famous historic cafes such as San Carlo coffee or Turin coffee or Stratta confectionery, which with its 60 square meters of history, the showcase with the velvet and colored cardboard boxes, the sugared almonds, the gianduiotti, the marron glacè and the candies, will make you want to stop time to become a child again and feel authorized to do whims because you will want to taste everything.
Despite the watering, we continue our tour and arrive in Piazza Castello.
Here you will be spoiled for choice: you can have a drink bicerin from Mulassano, eat an ice cream at Fiorio's, take a stroll in the courtyard of Palazzo Reale, turn your back to it and have a perspective view of the entire Via Roma embraced by Porta Nuova and admire Palazzo Madama, climb the observation tower (which with its 30 meters high allows you a view of the city from all the eight windows that characterize it and do not have the grates that you find on the temple on top of the Mole Antonelliana).
Personally it's my favorite tower and it's a great alternative to the elevator that takes you almost to the top of it Mole, which is certainly the symbol of the city and a higher point of view but for this reason much more touristic. In fact, the Mole of meters counts "a few" more (there are 167) but if you are in a hurry, the tower of Palazzo Madama gives you a taste of the roofs of Turin without the queue you have to do to get on the lift. To you the choice.
From Piazza Castello we go down to Via Po: the shops are different from Via Roma, much more close at hand together with the used book stalls, handicrafts, African necklaces, recycled paper chandeliers and the scent of pizza mixed with kebabs. Stunned by so many distractions, you will not have realized that you will have covered all the 16 km of arcades that characterize the center and you will have reached the end of your tour, in Piazza Vittorio, which will accompany you along the Po across the Vittorio Emanuele bridge which connects it to the beautiful church of Great Mother of God.
It is aperitif time and you are in the right place. Sit down in one of the many outdoor cafes and open the dance for your Turin-style aperitif. Alla Grocery shop, which you will find at 18 in Piazza Vittorio, you will find music, cocktails, a large table with a thousand snacks and the suggestive outdoor area with a view of Mole, hills, Gran Madre and along the river.
You will have it all in a handful of looks; as you sip your cocktail and watch the city glow in the early evening light. This will be the right time to rethink the day just spent mentally passing your agenda because you will not wait to go back to Turin to see the rest.
