In the travel industry, the phrase “hidden gem” is tarnished by overuse. However, no expression could be more apt when it comes to talking about the northern Italian city of Turin. So often dismissed as little but an industrial centre, the town is in fact a Baroque marvel, beautifully situated in the foothills of the Alps, and boasting one of the finest local cuisines (and at such prices!) anywhere on Earth.
(Photo: Getyourguide.com)
Indeed, few and far between are the tourist experiences equal to a guided wander around the eating hotspots of the Piedmont capital. Whether your tastes are geared toward the sophisticated by way of truffles, the sweet by way of chocolate, or rustic by way of local markets, Turin has it all! Below represents just a sampling of the sampling tours you might want to consider.
Turin: Guided Tour & Chocolate Experience with Local Guide
Almost since there’s been chocolate in Europe, there’s been chocolate in Turin, and it did not take long for the locals to turn the beguiling sweet into their very own art form. This tour takes you from world-beating chocolatier to chocolatier, and is crammed with history about the treat and its relationship with Turin. Samples abound, as does a taste of the city’s famous Al Bicerin drink – think chocolate, coffee, and milk – at the very café it was said to have been invented and that still bears its name.
(Photo: Getyourguide.com)
Turin AperiTour
Turin has been described as capital of the fine art of eating in preparation for eating. We refer of course to the aperitivo, in which an early evening drink is paired with veritable feasts of local produce. This two and a half hour walking tour takes you between three different tasting bars in which the star of the show is local Vermouth – dry, rich, and delicious! Come with a big appetite, though, considering there’s also a heady mixture of meat, cheese, and freshly picked veg to help ease the alcohol down!<
Turin: Food and Farmers Market Tour
Turin’s Porta Polazzo is the biggest open-air food market in Europe, and really deserves billing as one of the wonders of the world. The multicolour sight of stacked vegetables, the polyphonic sound of stall holders, and the smell of fruit, cheese, and nearby cooking all combine to offer a heady cocktail sure to drive any foodie into raptures. This tour helps you understand what you’re seeing, and make the most of what the market offers, and it includes a blow-out lunch at the nearby Quadrilatero Roman restaurant: all products locally sourced, of course!
(Photo: Getyourguide.com)
Street Food Tour DLuxe | Tastes of Turin
Go on, treat yourself, and your taste buds to a journey they’ll never forget. Comprehensive and top end, this tour takes you right the way around Turin’s old town, where a smorgasboard of everything from truffle pasta to Croesus rich wine to mind-blowing chocolate and expertly roasted coffee awaits. Also, expect to get a detailed historic introduction the whole show. Turin is the Italian city where the now world-conquering slow food movement was born, and this tour helps give you some insight into why.
Private Tour: Piedmont Wine Tasting of the Barolo Region
It’s not only food that Turin does well, but wine as well. The Barolo label is justifiably among the best known in all of Italy, and is without doubt the nation’s premier luxury drink. As such, it can come as a delightful surprise that there’s something very intimate and small scale about the businesses that produce it, a tour around them is a door into a boutique romance that it seems hard to believe could go so hand in hand with such a luxury product. These day-long tours offer tastings of some of the best wines on the planet, a chance to sample the legendary white truffles of Alba, and of course plenty of detailed information about the region and its history.