I❤️Markets:TORINO
Don't tell, but I ADORE Torino
I don’t remember the first time I visited Torino, but I fell in love that first trip. Over the years I have returned over and over again, mostly for the chocolate. Torino is home to Gianduja, the chocolate and hazelnut spread, which became the commercial Nutella. But if you want to taste the real thing, head to Torino.
The beautiful caffes and the art of pastry, chocolate and coffee, which have continued. The importing of both coffee beans and cocoa “beans” where processed in the same place, both the coffee beans and the cocoa beans are toasted before being used. They were both imported and known as Coloniali products.
The Caffe culture still is quite active in Torino. Under the covered walkways around town, you will find so many of the historic confettierie, caffe and cioccolaterie.
Torino has more of a French vibe to me. I had spent a lot of time in Paris, my grandather was born in France, I studied French as a kid all through school, 14 years. I studied to be a pastry chef. All my life I thought I would live in France, not Italy. Torino is both.
Torino was the home to the Royal Family. You may not know, but Italy wasn’t “Italy” until the mid 1800’s, before that it was a series of separate “countries”. The Grand Ducato of Tuscany, The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( which was Naples and the Island of Sicily) and Torino was part of the Regna di Sardegna. The French town of Nice, where Garibaldi was born, was in Italy.
In 1861, Italy as we know it today was formed. The town of Nice became part of France as did the Island of Corsica.
The Royal Family, the Casa dei Savoia, was based in Torino and there are still followers for the monarchy. Italy was filled with nobile families and still is, although now the Royal Court is more of a social status than ruling the country.
You will find signs of elegance and beauty everywhere.
There is a Royal Palace and gardens to visit as well as a beautiful caffe with museum inside.
The city is flat and very walkable. There is a park down by the river as well, with a castle which is lovely to visit, it’s a green haven in the city.
Torino has several large parks. People love to walk or bike everywhere. Public transportation is also great to get around the large distances if you are going to see everything including the castles parks.
The more modern Torino was home to the Fiat Factory, now a mall with a large rooftop garden, museum with a restaurant. It’s huge and you can easily spend hours there. Fiat is owned by the Agnelli family, not nobile but one of the BIG Italian industrial families. The Fiat is no longer made here but the building itself is fascinating and worth a visit. The inside has the beautiful ramp to the roof where the track was to test drive the cars. The transformation of the space is wonderful.
If hope this makes you want to visit Torino, it has so much to see and do, it’s easily worth a week!
It has one of the world’s most important Egyptian museums, a cinema museum, palaces and art galleries and incredible food and wine.
Torino is the capital of Piemonte, home to Barolo and Barbaresco wines. Big wines that go with delicious rich foods.
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