Turin

Introduction

Symbol of Torino

© indarto

Turin in the northwest of Italy not far from the Alps, was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy. The residences of this Royal House are listed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Nowadays it might be more familiar for being the seat of the FIAT (cars) concern. Turin is also an important university city, just like sport is important in this city. Football clubs Juventus (the Old Lady) and Torino play Italy's oldest derby, the Derby della Mole, and had great successes in European competitions. In 2006 it was the host for the 21st Olympic Winter Games, which gave the city a boost as it comes to infrastructure.

Sights and Activities

Basilica di Superga

Basilica di Superga, Torino

© indarto

The Basilica of Superga was built by Duke Vittorio Amadeo II to fulfill a vow he had made at the site in 1706, when French troops threatened to invade Torino. The building of the basilica took 14 years and was opened to the public in 1731. It is located on the top of a hill and is a very peaceful and lovely place to visit. A visit to the basilica can be divided into five parts: the interior of the church, the dome, guided tour around royal apartments, guided tour around tombs and a walk around the gardens and surroundings of the basilica. There is also a museum dedicated to the football team who crashed against this hill in 1949.

From Torino, bus 15 leaves Piazza Castello for Superga. Make sure you are on the right direction and not going in the direction of Sassi. From Superga bus stop, one has to take the historic little tram up the hill to the Basilica.

Visiting the church and the surrounding gardens is free. The visits to the dome, museum and tombs costs about €2 to €3 each. Church opening hours are:

• Monday to Friday: 09:00am-12:00 noon/3:00pm-6:00pm (Closes at 5:00pm from November to March)
• Saturday and Sunday: 09:00am-12:45pm/3:00pm-6:45pm (Closes at 5:45pm from November to March)

Getting There

By Plane

Turin Caselle Airport (or in Italian: Aeroporto di Torino, IATA: TRN, ICAO: LIMF), is located 6 kilometres north of Turin. A few dozen of airlines fly to Turin, including low-cost carrier Ryanair, which has flights to/from Bari, Brindisi, Bristol, Brussels, Dublin, East Midlands, Girona, Glasgow, London, Madrid, Stockholm and Trapani. Other airlines fly to Paris, Amsterdam, Tirana, Malta, Naples, Istanbul, Rome, Moscow, Palermo, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Luxembourg and Casablanca.
The airport is connected to the city of Turin with the Ferrovia Torino-Ceres (commuter rail operated by GTT Railroads) and by bus. Taxis and rental cars are both widely available and short- and long-term parking places are easily reached.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

The Torino+Piemonte card is a good bargain as it gives unlimited public transport travel and entrance to museums in the region. A 7-day card costs €35 and is worth it.

Eat

• Lilla Bar - Located at Via Settembre, this is a good place to have a nice, hot meal of pasta and fresh, fruit juice. Prices are under €10.
• Al Primo Piano - Located at Via Po, this is a good place for pizzas fresh from the wood stove. Prices are between €10 and €15.

Sleep

Upscale

Learn

• University of Turin

Keep Connected

Internet

Almost all towns and cities in Italy have internet cafes. A growing number of budget hostels and nicer hotels have free Wifi. By law all public-access internet points must keep records of web sites viewed by customers, and even the customer's ID: expect to be refused access if you don't provide identification. Hotels providing Internet access are not required to record IDs if the connection is provided in the guest's room, although if the connection is offered in the main public hall then IDs are required. Publicly available wireless access without user identification is illegal, so open Wi-Fi hotspots (like the ones you might expect to find in a mall or cafée) all have some form of (generally one-time) registration.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The main networks are TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile, part of Telecom Italia, formerly state controlled), Vodafone, Wind, and 3 (only UMTS cellphones). Best advice is to buy a prepaid SIM card (from € 10 upwards) and a cheap mobile phone (€ 19 upwards) to put it in (if you don't have a cellphone already that you can use). It will be much more practical. All land line numbers start with 0. Mobile numbers start with 3. Numbers starting with 89 are high-fee services. In case of emergency call the appropriate number from the list below. Such calls are usually free and calls to 112, 113 (police), 115 (fire), 118 (health) can be made from payphones for free without the need of inserting coins. 112 (standard emergency number in GSM specification) can be dialed in any case for free from any mobile phone.

Post

Post Italiane is the national postal services of Italy and has quite an efficient network of postal offices and reliable postal services. Standard letters and postcards (up to 20 grams) cost €0.39 to send within Europe and the Mediterranean countries outside Europe and €0.41 to all other destinations throughout the country. Up to 50 grams, prices start at €0.52 for Europe, €0.62 for other areas. Packages start at €1.55 within Europe, and around €2.50 for other countries. Post office business hours in Italy are from 8:30am to 2:00pm from Monday to Friday, with closing times at Saturday and the last day of the month at 12 noon. In general, larger post offices in bigger cities and in tourist areas keep longer hours than those in local towns. Also note that business hours in the south might be different than the north, with longer hours at night, especially in summer! If you want to send packages you might try faster and more reliable/efficient private courier companies like TNT, UPS or DHL.