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.
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.
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