Turin (or “Torino” if you’re Italian) was our favorite city on this trip. I guess we saved the best for last! It’s a large city, about one million people, but it felt approachable and welcoming to us the moment we arrived. One of the treats we enjoyed was this coffee specialty of Turin: the Bicerin (pronounced “bicherin”). It’s made with a shot of espresso, then layered with thick hot chocolate the consistency of pudding, and then covered with frothed milk. Mixing it with a spoon ruins the layered novelty, so we enjoyed most of ours with a spoon and it did not disappoint! We also tried two desserts on this shop’s menu and they were also among the favorite foods from our trip.

We visited Turin’s Museo Egizio, the largest Egyptian archeological museum outside of Egypt, founded in 1824. While we have a lot of opinions about removing and displaying artifacts from cultures outside the local area, the museum was very well done and we enjoyed learning about them. It is our hope that these objects can be repatriated to their country of origin while still educating the public about their valuable historical significance.

We took the trams around Turin to get an understanding of how the city is laid out and saw many of the tourist gems like the enormous Porto Palazzo Market, and the outsides of the Duomo di Torino (Turin Cathedral) and its tower and the Mole Antonelliana, which is one of the iconic features of the Turin skyline.

The Royal Palace of Turin (see photo above) was incredibly beautiful and housed a number of museums; we spent hours there. The ceilings and the floors were so intricately made with inlaid woods and stunning to look at.

This photo of the dining room showed the typical decor throughout the palace, all gold leaf, elegant linens and artwork.

There was a museum showing a huge collection of armor and weaponry dating back to the 15th century:

It was in this palace that the “Shroud of Turin” was kept for centuries in this gorgeous chapel in the box in the middle of the photo below. It is now kept out of public view in a climate controlled location away from the palace, but the chapel is beautiful.

And there was even the ruins of a Roman amphitheater out back which is still occasionally used for events:

We neglected to take any photos of Turin’s amazing covered walkways which span something like 18 kilometers (~11 miles) through the historic city center. They are lined with shops and provide cover for rainy days and the heat of summer. It’s worth following the link above to see a panoramic tour of some of them.

We ate some more delicious handmade pizza and pasta, sampled local wines, and enjoyed so much gelato in Turin. Now back in Angers, we continue to discuss our favorite parts of the trip and what we’d like to see next time. We had such a great experience, we hope to go back to Turin and stay longer, soaking up more of the history and culture.