City guide

Torino

Turin is Italy without the crowds: Baroque arcades and grand cafés built on Fiat and royal Savoy money, an Egyptian Museum second only to Cairo's, and chocolate traditions (gianduja, bicerin) that predate the Slow Food movement born nearby. The grid-planned centre sits under the Alps, visible on a clear day at the end of long straight avenues. It's a serious, elegant northern Italian city rather than a sun-drenched one — think coffee-and-vermouth aperitivo culture over beach-holiday energy.