Is Turin worth visiting? An honest answer, and how it compares with Milan

Yes, if you like museums, food and walking. Turin has the oldest museum in the world devoted entirely to ancient Egypt, a royal palace at the centre of a group of Savoy residences listed by UNESCO, a cinema museum inside its landmark tower, the Mole, and the aperitivo of the city where vermouth was invented. The Alps close the view, and Milan is under an hour away by high-speed train.

It suits a second or third trip to Italy, a long weekend, or a stop on the way between Milan and France. It isn’t a beach city, and if it’s your first time in Italy and you have only a few days, Rome, Florence or Venice will probably come first. Below: why it’s worth it, who it suits, how it compares with Milan, how many days you need, when to go and where to stay.

Why Turin is worth visiting

The museums

• The Egyptian Museum, the Museo Egizio, is the oldest museum in the world devoted entirely to ancient Egyptian culture: it was founded in 1824 (its history, in Italian). The museum reckons an average visit takes about two hours (its FAQ).
• The Mole Antonelliana, the tower that is the symbol of the city, houses the National Cinema Museum. A panoramic lift rises through the middle of the museum and reaches a terrace 85 metres up in 59 seconds, with a view over Turin and the Alps around it (Museo Nazionale del Cinema).
• The Musei Reali: the state rooms of the Royal Palace, the Royal Armoury, the Sabauda Gallery and the Royal Library (Musei Reali). The palace is the centre of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997: 22 palaces and villas, eleven in the centre of Turin and eleven around it (UNESCO).
• Palazzo Madama, in the middle of piazza Castello, belongs to the same UNESCO site. It began as the city’s fortress, built around the two towers of a Roman gate, and became a palace; today it houses the civic museum of ancient art, the Museo Civico d’Arte Antica (Palazzo Madama).
• Palazzo Carignano, where the unification of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861, is the home of the National Museum of the Risorgimento (the museum).
• And if you like cars, there’s the National Automobile Museum.

The food

Turin isn’t a city of pizza and seafood: it’s butter, raw beef chopped by hand, tiny filled pasta and wines from the hills of Piedmont. Vermouth was invented here, in 1786, by Antonio Benedetto Carpano (MuseoTorino, in Italian), and the aperitivo, between the early evening and dinner, is taken seriously. In winter there’s the bicerin: coffee, chocolate and cream in a small glass, not stirred. What to order, and where to look, is in our guide to where to eat in Turin.

The Alps

The mountains close the view from the Mole’s terrace, and they’re close enough for a day out: on weekdays trains run every hour from Porta Nuova to Bardonecchia, in the Susa Valley (the SFM3 line, in Italian). We also manage homes in the mountains, at Bardonecchia and Sauze d’Oulx, for the snow season and for the summer.

A city you can walk

The centre is flat and laid out on a grid, with long stretches of arcades, the portici, so you can walk it in the rain too. The two main stations, Porta Nuova and Porta Susa, are three stops apart on the metro, and most of what you come to see is between them and the river.

Who Turin suits, and who it doesn’t

• It suits people who like museums and history, food and wine, and seeing a city on foot; people on their second or third trip to Italy; people who want to add the mountains to a city break; and people coming for an event: the book fair in May, the art fairs at the start of November, the tennis later that month.
• It suits less people looking for the sea: the nearest beaches are on the Ligurian coast, and for a beach holiday you’d stay there. And if you have only a few days for your first trip to Italy, the most famous cities will probably come first. Turin is a city to add, not the one to start with.

Turin or Milan?

They’re close, and they’re different cities.

• Milan is the city of fashion, business and design: the Cathedral, Leonardo’s Last Supper, the Brera district, and in April the Design Week, which fills the whole city (our guide: Milan Design Week).
• Turin is quieter: the Savoy palaces, the Egyptian Museum, the cafés under the arcades, a cuisine of its own and the mountains close by.

You don’t have to choose. High-speed trains, Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa and Italo, run between Milano Centrale and Turin’s Porta Susa and Porta Nuova stations, and Italo gives about 36 minutes for its non-stop train (Italo, Milan–Turin). Turin is also on the line to Lyon and Paris, with French TGV trains (Turismo Torino). You can stay in one and spend a day in the other, or split the nights. If you’re flying into Turin itself, the airport train reaches Porta Susa in about half an hour.

If you do have to pick one for a weekend: Milan if you’re coming for fashion, design or a trade fair; Turin if you’re coming for museums, food and the mountains.

How many days do you need in Turin?

• One day, as a day trip from Milan: the centre on foot — piazza Castello, the Royal Palace, via Roma and piazza San Carlo — and one of the two big visits, the Egyptian Museum or the Mole. It’s enough to know whether you want to come back, not to see Turin.
• Two or three days is the right length: the Egyptian Museum one morning, the Mole and the river Po another, the Musei Reali, an aperitivo, and dinner in a piola, the Turin osteria.
• Four days or more if you add the mountains, or a day in the wine hills of Piedmont.

The list of what to see is in places to visit in Turin.

When to go

Turin doesn’t have one season: each part of the year has its reasons.

• May: the Salone del Libro, the international book fair, fills Lingotto Fiere. In 2027 it runs from 13 to 17 May (salonelibro.it, in Italian).
• The start of November: Artissima, the contemporary art fair, and Club to Club, the electronic music festival. In 2026 Artissima is open to the public from 30 October to 1 November (artissima.art); the weekend is described in our guide to Artissima and Club to Club.
• November: the ATP Finals, the tennis tournament that closes the season, from 15 to 22 November 2026 at the Inalpi Arena (Nitto ATP Finals), and the Torino Film Festival, from 24 November to 2 December 2026 (torinofilmfest.org). How the tournament works is in the ATP Finals in Turin.
• Winter: from 22 October 2026 to 10 January 2027 the Luci d’Artista, light installations by contemporary artists, are on in the streets and squares (Turismo Torino). December adds the Christmas events; from January, the snow in the mountains.

In the weeks of the big events the city fills up: if your dates fall on one of them, look for a home as soon as you know them.

Where to stay in Turin

For a first visit, stay in the centre or in San Salvario, next to Porta Nuova station: you can walk to the Egyptian Museum, the Mole and the trattorias. The Crocetta is quieter, Vanchiglia livelier in the evening, and Cit Turin and Cenisia are handy if you arrive at Porta Susa. Each one is described, with how to get there from the airport and the stations, in our guide to where to stay in Turin.

These are the neighbourhoods where we manage homes: Turin is where we started, and where our office is. The available homes, with dates and prices, are on our booking portal, which you reach from the Turin page; the same homes are on Airbnb and Booking.com, on the same terms. We can’t promise a home for an event week until you find it free: if the dates you want don’t appear, call us on +39 011 1962 0297 or message us on WhatsApp at +39 351 361 3447.

On arrival your identity is checked against your document, as Italian law requires of every host, and we look after your arrival ourselves. Why it works this way is in why hosts in Italy ask for your passport.