Torino

I went to Torino as part of a cheap flight deal with Ryan Air from the UK. I went with a friend for the weekend and have to say it was a very nice place to visit for a weekend break. My advice would first be to look on a map of the city when you chose your hotel as it's advisable to get one close to the city centre and shops. I used Microsoft's Autroute to pick a hotel before we went there and I'm very glad I did. We ended up in a nice little hotel not too far from the city centre. We found the locals there very, very friendly - although hardly anyone there seems to speak English unlike other European destinations like Holland so take a translation book with you when you go. We forgot all about this and ended up buying an Italian to English book once we got to Italy, not perfect but it did the trick. However the Italian translations book are very humerous and even have swear words in them!!

It's very easy to get lost walking around the streets, we managed to however walk freely and navigate our way back to the hotel very easily because we took a Garmin GPS tracking device, however in some of the narrow street with high buildings it was impossible to get a fix on the minimum of 3 satellites to obtain our position.

Italy is the home of the Pizza and they are usually great there but I have to admit the worst pizza I had was in Turin (Torino) - it was from what I could make out going to be a pizza with fish (I was hoping for Tuna) - instead it turned out to have some sort of fish, squid, prawns but worst of all Mussles still in their shells and full of sea salt. It was terriable and worst of all the owners were watching me and my friend eating and so I was honour bound to finish the thing!!

On Saturdays there is a very nice street market although I couldn't exactly tell you where because we found it by accident.

On Friday and Saturday a place called the Lucky Nugget is a very good place to go to hear live music and there was a lady on the front desk that spoke perfect English. At this place you don't pay for drinks when you get them, but instead are given a card upon paying the entrance fee and then you get a hole punched in your card when you get a drink. Then you pay for all your drinks when you leave - we quite like this arrangement, it greatly shortened the queue at the bar.

I don't think I'd recommend Turin for anything longer then a weekend stay unless you have friends there to take you places - but for a weekend trip of 2 to 3 days it's a nice place to visit and the people are so friendly.

• 
  • Flag This Review
  • Irrelevant
  • Fake
  • Junk
• Thank You! We appreciate your effort.

This may not be one of those famous magical fairytale Italian cities like Venice,Florence or Pisa but one of the most important cities of northen Italy apart from Milan . This is a lovely city situated at the footsteps of the Alps,bordering France and Switzerland, and is the capital of Piemonte region ( which means ''foot of the mountains'' in French).Personally ,for me, northern Alpine Italian region is more picturesque 'n serene than the arid southern region .I happened to live here for some months in one of my visits to this country and hence fondly remember this place.

This is historically,a old city with once even boasting of being the capital of Italy in 19th century and has been ruled by French,Austrians,Russians.Also economically speaking ,Torino is an important industrial centre, with FIAT and Olivetti the best known names. But industry is on the outskirts. The rest is a lovely, elegant, sophisticated city with just an hour drive from Milan.

The whole city is lavishly sprinkled with huge squares,manicured boulevards,fountains ,parks,lush green sidewalks ,roman scultpures,beautiful cafes.The plan for this city dates back to many centuries back 'n is neatly arranged geometrically.The city centre with its gravelled pathways, lined by ancient buildings and the newer ones still follows the same architecture 'n hence the city retains that sense of vintage look.The city central square has the royal palace(House of Savoy ) 'n gardens of the Italian royal family ,Savoy's who has left behind many art masterpieces (seen in Savoy Gallery) to royal armories to equestrian statuary.The most famous chic streets like ''Via Roma'' 'n ''Via Garibaldi'',boast of some of the finest connosieur Italian designer showrooms interspersed with American brands like CK,Nike...,pearl jewellery shops, huge shopping malls like ''La Rinascente'' (the largest being ''LeGrue situated at the outskirts),some of the yummy gelatterias( ice cream parlours) 'n is a pleasure to simply walk down these streets for window shopping 'n sit down for

This city has second largest Egyptian museum in the world ,next to Cairo,pretty amazing,'n boasts of some of the finest wines like Barolo and has an wine making undergound rooms of champagne,Martini ...etc.A popular cathedral downtown, is specially sacred for Catholics, featuring the shroud ,which was supposedly used to wrap body of Christ after the crucifixation.

If one wants to have an bird eye view of the city,take a toy train trip to the nearest mountain called ''Suparga'',which gives a breathtaking view of the city.A beautiful church is built on top of the hill,as a mark of thanksgiving by the king when torino was recaptured from the clutches of the French.

The city has a very intersting nightlife ,concetrated mainly around the banks of River Po ,which burts into life as the night progresses with many livebands, latino clubs,river side ristorante, 'n is a popular chirpy teen hangout,especially in summers.The street leading to this river runs to many kms, and is lined by beautifically crafted arcades.Apart from this it has host of discotheques ,night clubs ,cabarets, sleazy joints (the street Via sachi is quite notorious for this),with some finest clubs having a strict dress code like suits (this code really amuses me),but the lively energetic discos r most preferable to it ,which r free for college students over weekends.But one surprising thing is that even though ,its difficult to make italians understand a line of simple english,eng songs,pop/rock stars r quite a craze,'n lots of concerts in summers.

Also this city is the venue for the 2006 winter olympics 'n is already gearing for the big event.Atlast this place also bears a very imp Indian connection,guess what,Sonia hails from this place!!!You can also find a couple of pricey Indian restaurants ,which r very popular 'n is always full .

In all a lovely city,which u can drop in if u 've some some spare time when u r in Milan.Its an ideal place for vacationing in summer ,in the sense that ,an hour drive up to the north takes u to cool alpine resorts 'n to the west takes u to the hot sultry beaches of Italian riviera.

• 
  • Flag This Review
  • Irrelevant
  • Fake
  • Junk
• Thank You! We appreciate your effort.