Our first city in Italy in 2025 was Turin, where we encountered a totally different culture from France. We thought that the mood was different, the people dressed differently and, of course, the melodious Italian they were speaking was totally different.
Our road trip from Lyon to Turin was the first time we put all of our luggage and skis in our Kia Sportage SUV. Everything just fit.
Our road trip took 6 hours with a stop for our picnic lunch and some traffic. Dimitri drove Signorina Kia the whole way and enjoyed the smartness of our new smart car. (It was so smart, we were playing catch-up.) The cruise control really pleased him. When he set a speed, Signorina Kia kept that speed and slowed down when the traffic slowed. Then it would regain the set speed when the traffic started up. The best part was when it read the speed limit from the street sign and adjusted the set speed accordingly. He also giggled with pleasure when we breezed through the telepass toll booth because the Fulli device he bought worked.
We had driven from Lyon to Chambery in April when there was snow on the Alps. This trip, we saw only a little bit of snow left, and the mountains were green, looking like velvet.
Turin
We stayed at the Principi di Piemonte (Principi di Piemonte UNA Esperienze, Via Piero Gobetti 15 (Torino Centro), 10123 Turin Italy). We thought it was a nice hotel with excellent service. Our Diplomatic Suite was very quiet and comfortable with two toilets and 75 square meters (848€ per night with breakfast and parking). We had a desk as well as a table for our laptops, and we enjoyed the space. Silvia Fregga, the Guest Experience Manager, personalized our room and provided us with wonderful fruit, including fresh figs. She also had the chef make us Zabaione, and it was fabulous. Audre really enjoyed the bouquet of flowers she left for us.
Our suite had a big open view of the center of Turin and would have had a mountain view too if it hadn't been so hazy. We could identify the Mole Antonelliana building and the former king's doumo (with its spire that, from a distance, looked Thai). The salon/living room had pleasing art and a sofa that was both too deep and too hard for us. Audre liked the burled wood of the furniture and the wood floors looked good. The climate control was an annoyance during our stay: we set the temperature at 16°C in the bedroom and it never got cooler than 23°C. That was a little too hot for sleeping comfortably. The hotel sent someone who thought he had fixed it but he had not.
The gym/fitness was too hot too, and the universal machine was not to our liking so we walked Turin instead. On the other hand, the Jacuzzi was too cold for us at 32°C. We asked for the temperature to be raised but we were told it could/would not be raised. We were very disappointed. We were able to use the hotel's yoga mats to do our stretching and toning in our suite and that was nice. The breakfast buffet was okay (20€ each); omelets were an annoying extra charge. If we asked, we were brought freshly squeezed orange juice.
We walked to the sights, and it thrilled Audre to arrive at the Po River and think that we could float our way to Rome on it. The Rationalist-style architecture of the buildings in Turin, as well as the buildings in the Savoyard-style, gave it a very different feel from Lyon. The Renaissance architecture of the 17th and 18th-century buildings in Lyon gave the city an elegant and graceful look. The buildings in Turin looked heavier. The city looked shabbier than Lyon did and the buildings were dirtier.
Mostly we ate in Turin. Turin is reputed to be where Zabaione was created, and we wanted to taste the creations of as many chefs as we could. Silvia told us where to find the best risotto and the best gnocchi, and we tried them at the restaurants she recommended.
Our first restaurant, Scatto, was an excellent recommendation by Silvia. Each of the dishes we ordered was creative, tasty and enjoyable. The risotto was cooked absolutely correctly. And, the service was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable. It was Dimitri's favorite. Casa Fiore was another recommendation by Silvia and the food was very good. Silvia arranged for the chef there to make us a Zabaione for dessert. It was excellent. We didn't even stay at the famous cafe al Bicerin, it was tiny and not at all appealing--we thought that it was going to be lavish and it was the opposite.
After three nights at the Principi di Piemonte, we were off to Milan to the Four Seasons there.
Milan
Our stay in Milan was a success in many ways. We had a "to do list" and were successful in achieving our goals there. The first one was to stay at the Four Seasons Milano and get our Four Seasons "fix."
The second was to rendez-vous with Gino, a friend of Dimitri's from his youth in Egypt who Dimitri had not seen in 67 years! The third was to find an elegant track suit/at home outfit that Dimitri could wear everyday, everywhere. The fourth was to mangiare bene--particularly risotto and gnocchi.
When we checked in, Serap, the Director of Guest Experience, met us, welcomed us, and showed us to our room. The Premium Room that the GM Andrea Obertello upgraded us to was 39.5 square meters and much smaller than any FS room we had ever stayed in (it was also very expensive at 1,491€ per night (including taxes, breakfast and parking). For our 4-day stay (with most of our luggage in the car), it worked for us. Serap made sure we had delicious fresh figs everyday and that made our stay really work for us!
There was an entry hall with a bagno (shower, bathtub, sink) on one side and a toilette and sink on the other side of the hall. There were two closets—one with a bench for one suitcase. Dimitri was able to unpack his suitcase and put things in one closet. Audre used the bench to put her suitcase on and leave most of her clothes in it. Moving into the room, on one side, there was a sofa, coffee table and large piece of furniture with decorative items (and the mini bar items) and annoying false drawers. There was a table with 2 chairs in the middle of the room which Dimitri used for his laptop. Another round table was brought for Audre and her laptop. Amazingly, the room was long enough to accommodate all of that and a king sized bed with bedside tables on the other side of the room. We had two big windows overlooking the garden courtyard of the former 15th century convent and the outdoor bar there. It was very quiet and pretty.
The room had been renovated and was just starting to be used. While there were mistakes we thought the designers made, the room worked. The colors of some of the walls and art, picked up the colors of the hallway and were calming—all evoking the pink of the Candoglia marble of the Duomo. The art was nice.
Housekeeping did a good job and the supervisors, Kamal and Piero, made sure that all of Audre’s requests were granted, although the room was not personalized before we arrived. The GM’s assistant, Cristina, was very helpful as was Serap during our stay. We never did meet Andrea, the GM.
The breakfast was very pleasant in the
garden. Alessandra and Angela made sure that we had everything we wanted each
day. There was a bakery buffet and then we ordered breakfast from a menu. We
had eggs, French toast, porridge—all of our regular breakfast items. Everything
was very good.
Our first dinner in Milano was at Zelo a
Michelin recommended restaurant at the Four Season Milano. Dennis was an excellent server and we enjoyed
our meal in the garden very much.
Gino and Marise, his wife, were the perfect hosts in Milan.
Gino would not let us pay for anything, he chose the perfect spots for us to see and the perfect restaurant for us to have lunch at. We met Gino and Marise at the exqusite Galeria Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II di Milano where we had aperitivo (see the snap above) overlooking the Duomo. Gino drove us to the San Siro Stadium (where the opening ceremony of the 2026 winter Olympics will be held) and where we saw the famous Equestrian Statue of Leonardo di Vinci. After a perfect lunch at Ribot, Milano San Siro, Gino and Marise took us to their home so that Dimitri could Zoom with the group from Egypt that Gino connects with weekly.
Dimitri had been looking for an elegant
tracksuit to wear as his at home outfit. His last two outfits had come from
Boggi but there was nothing Dimitri liked either in Boggi Lyon or Boggi Milano.
Veronica and Jacopo from the FS Concierge suggested we go to AX Armani
Exchange. We were skeptical, but off we went to Emporio Armani instead. We had
success and found an elegant outfit for Dimitri (in extra small) at a price
Dimitri was willing to pay. We were so surprised to find anything affordable
there.
A big deal for us in Milano was going to La Scala. Norma was the opera playing; we didn't want to go to that one, and the best seats were sold out anyway. So we did the next best thing: we went on a tour in English. It was a great tour by Alice. We were informed and entertained and saw the great hall. At a cost of 64.80€, it was one-tenth the price of two tickets in the orchestra for a performance. One of the things we learned was that the cognoscenti sit in the rafters at 10€ (or some similar price) and the acoustics are great.
Another item on Audre's "to do" list was to get a Hermès scarf box for carrying her scarves (the old one was disintegrating). The company has a strict policy not to provide boxes to people who don't buy scarves. Dimitri was very persuasive and finally Elessa, the scarf manager, relented and gave Audre a new box.
Carlo and Olmo, other members of the Concierge Team helped us with our dinner reservations. We were glad that Carlo at the Concierge Desk made sure that we went to Il Baretto, rather than the one we had reserved.
Everyone, actually, was helpful and welcoming. And then, after four days, we continued our road trip and went on to the Dolomites where we stayed until September.
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