Turin, it's like a city you see in a film

Hi! I would like to share a very bella experience with you today about the incredible città di Torino (Turin). You can tell I've learnt a lot of Italian during my trip, right?

Why Turin?

It was one of my good friend's fault since he was staying in Turin as an Erasmus student. I decided to leave my notes and uni work to one side for a few days to go and visit him. Along with another friend, I found one of those very convenient flights that, for the price, you never know if you have to flap your arms to propel the vehicle yourself, and in the cold winter, we made it there with our rucksacks. Our objective was to explore part of northern Italy and at the same time, see how our friend was (who, by the way, a long time ago was having dreams about serrano ham).

After he came to meet us at the airport, the train journey to his house, an endless amount of updates and stories and one about how satisfying Italian food is, we had time to enjoy being with the best Spanish guide anyone could ever want by their side to explore the streets in Turin. It's important to stop for a second, to say that although the city has a good public transport network in terms of buses, trains and trams, the streets are quite flat and things aren't too far apart, so we were able to go to practically everywhere on foot.

We couldn't have chosen a better time to go because, given that the Christmas holidays were near, everywhere was more colourful and attractive, due to all the lights and decorations which were put up in the historic centre. It made it such an unforgettable experience.

Going to the must-see places in Turin

Turin is a fascinating city in itself due to the architecture of the buildings and the squares, which I will speak about now.

We visited the famous Piazza San Carlo and Piazza Castello, the latter was decorated with a wonderful Christmas tree, and is also one of the most popular places to go to amongst students. We also went to Piazza Statuto, where there's an odd fountain (the Frejus fountain) which has a statue of the fallen angel Lucifer. In any case, if there's an element of architecture which identifies Turin, it's the Mole Antonelliana, an enormous construction I'm going to talk about later.

Piazza Castello

Regarding any religious architecture, I firstly want to talk about the Turin Cathedral, which is near some Roman ruins.

In the chapel, as you can imagine, we got to see the controversial Holy Shroud, and later learnt a bit about the history behind it in the Sindone Museum. We also visited the San Lorenzo Church, and the magnificent Gran Madre di Dio Church, which is there to remember Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome. A little further and after going up a hill to a spectacular place, we arrived at a viewpoint where there was an incredible view of the whole city: no one can miss out on such a landscape.

Viewpoint

The Museums

Regarding the museums, they're not free but they do have student discount and passes. We only visited two, but we spent several hours there because they were excellent.

The Egyptian Museum was such a discovery, since it has a huge collection, of pieces, scrolls, models, sculptures, coffins, mummies, etc. Yes, you've read correctly, real mummies. In fact, every glass display has a sign warning people that the mummies are real, so that if you're easily upset you can decide whether or not you want to see them.

A burial site with a real mummy

Sphinx

Another wonderful museum was the National Cinema Museum. To be honest, at first, this museum didn't really stand out to me, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised, and I would have regretted not going to see it. Even the start of the visit was very promising: they introduce visitors into the History of Cinema through an endless amount of optical illusion games, videos, equipment and old junk which were advancing over time and through history and visitors can participate by touching the different machines and creating their own memories.

The tour continued with current cinema, and that's where we were truly stunned. We saw all the different genres (classical cinema, horror, erotic cinema, neorealism, etc). There were ten of them in total and they're all set up along a large room and again, you can get involved with all the different films. Suddenly you see a cafe, a terror house, a giant fridge full of food, a lab room, another room with toilets for seats, etc. There, you can see film posters such as from Grease, Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as Star Wars masks and Disney films. There are even sketches by W. Disney. Ultimately, it's an enormous room dedicated to worship cinema.

Caffé Torino

Wall with posters of all the cinema classics

Cinema room with toilets for seats

When you finish exploring this floor, that's when you really appreciate the place you're in and how tall the building is. I couldn't put it any other way, given that after there are more galleries going up showing different films and trends, as well as actors and protagonists. These corridors finish with a catalogue of the most diverse posters and the most famous film covers from all genres and all eras: from "Modern Times (1936) to "The Others" (2001).

Lastly, continuing the tour right up to the clouds, you can take a glass lift, which goes up right in the middle of the museum and gets to the Mole Antonelliana (167 metres high). There, you can see an amazing and unforgettable view of the city, with the Alps in the background.

View from the Mole Antonelliana

Shopping

Something I loved were the markets and little stalls which were set up along the porticoed streets, where they sell films, disks and books amongst other things, I just couldn't resist.

Eating

In terms of the food, there are many sandwich places and different restaurants where you can find offers and all you can eat buffets at quite a reasonable price. For example, one night we decided to go to a terrace which was in the middle of Piazza San Carlo where, we could enjoy the delightful panoramic view... Our teeth were chattering from the cold, but we had an amazing meal that's for sure!

Some of you may be wondering what the pizza is like in Turin and if it's worth trying. I must say that you have to try it for yourself and tell me after because, although it sounds crazy, we didn't have any pizza. We decided to make our own pizza and... what can I say? Our culinary talents were impressive!

We only went for three or four days and I'm sure that there are so many more interesting spots of the capital and of the Piemonte region left to see. But it was enough time for the city to impress us and to reveal a little magic and charm, and to make us want to go back (although it's better to do it in springtime).

I hope my review makes you want to explore this fantastic Italian city, which is always moving.

By the way, did you know that hard chocolate, like chocolate bars or little chocolate bonbons originated from Turin? Well it's true, it wasn't from Belgium or Switzerland.

"Torino non sta mai ferma"

("Turin will never stop going")

Photo gallery