Travel Essentials
Why go now?
Between now and Easter, this stylish city at the foot of the Alps is welcoming, uncrowded and accessible, thanks to the frequent ski flights. Turin is much more than a gateway to the mountains: it is one of Italy’s great cities, offering visitors a spectrum of indulgence from high culture to rich chocolate.
Touch down
British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) and easyJet (0843 104 5000; easyJet.com) compete from Gatwick, while Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ryanair.com) flies from Stansted. Turin airport is 16km north-east of the city at Caselle. The fastest and cheapest way in is by train, which leaves every half-hour from the airport station and costs €3.70. Buy a ticket and cancel it at the platform entrance before boarding the train. The journey takes only 20 minutes to Stazione Dora (1) – a good 15 minutes’ walk from the centre. Your rail ticket entitles you to transfer to one city bus service within 70 minutes – revalidate it on boarding.
The Sadem airport bus departs roughly every 15 minutes, with a fare of €6.50 if you buy a ticket in advance in the arrivals hall – or €7.50 if you pay the driver. The journey serves Porta Susa station (2), for the west of the city centre, and terminates at Porta Nuova station (3) about 45 minutes after leaving the airport. All three stations are undergoing substantial engineering work.
A taxi should cost €30 to most city- centre destinations.
Get your bearings
The city centre is contained within the Dora river to the north and the Po river to the east. A combination of narrow streets based on the original Roman grid, sliced through by broad avenues, makes Turin easy to navigate – as does the ever-visible wall of the Alps to the north. The city’s main squares are Piazza Castello (4), an odd-shaped space part-filled with the ungainly Palazzo Madama; Piazza San Carlo (5), right in the middle; and Piazza Vittorio Veneto (6), which opens out to the Po. You can hardly move for tourist offices (00 39 011 535 181; turismotorino.org). The main bureau at Porta Nuova station (3) is temporarily shut for refurbishment, so visit instead the office on Via Milano (7) or the kiosk on Via Giuseppe Verdi (8). Standard daily opening is 9am-7pm.
Check in
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