Wednesday 23 September 2026
Alba to Torino
Another relatively peaceful sleep and it was down to the big brekky and see off a few of the Swedish hares before wending our way town to the station for a local train ride to Torino.
Pretty uneventful trip taking in the views which just about tripled our variety of animals seen so far with horses and sheep in small numbers dotted along the way.
Closer to Torino the tall mountains to the south east turned out to be where the Winter Olympics events involving altitude were held.
A bit of a mixed result on the train change over, galloping across two platforms via the stairs only to be forced to retrace the steps with a platform change which had us scrambling to catch the new train. Lugging 28 kilo’s of luggage makes for a healthy work out.
On arrival quickly found our way to the hotel where luggage was to be stored, only to find the Lemon Queen from Nieve had sent her daughter down for training – never struck such a miserable and unhelpful type in all my travels- she is obviously not cut out for customer service.
Did a quick tour to find where our accommodation was which included the start of our ‘find a homeless person day’. The degree of homelessness and number of trinket sellers among the African community in Italy is very sad and probably goes a long way towards the anti migration sentiment over here.
Torino is definitely a place for the well presented, no unpainted nails, no hair out of place and a tracksuit, unless Gucci, not to be seen.
There is a bit of a Bologna feel about the place with many an ancient and new portico. The variations in architecture is amazing ranging from Roman ruins through Gothic to modern day designs.
The place is absolutely buzzing with preparations taking place for the Slow Cooking Festival which ironically starts tomorrow- if we are to retain any fitness it might be a convenient piece of timing.
Tents lined every street from the main square all way down to the Po River. It was actually difficult to get pictures of prominent sites because of them blocking the view. That said it was an amazing array of food not only from Italy, but all across the world.
After wandering around town we found a recommended restaurant for lunch. They passed the first couple of steps of choosing a restaurant, look for locals and avoid those with spruikets. It had a simple set menu at reasonable prices and it’s 100 seats were full and there was a queue to get in. Seats were not empty for long, on average they were filled within a couple of minutes.
Food and service was great and with full bellies we headed down to look at the Po River . It had a bit of sentimental value as we started our first walk from Milan to Rome not far from it and followed it for a few days.
it’s a pretty wide and slow flowing river with the banks dotted with eateries on one side and Rowing Clubs on the other.
Wandered our way back to town and found our very modern apartment where mine host gave us a run through on the 5 levels of security to get in. Dropped off luggage and more adventuring around the City where cafes and bars were just starting to get into the Apertivo zone. Somehow we refrained and kept wandering.
After a little siesta it was out into the streets looking for a dinner spot. Stopped at one and after a drink over a chat with some Poms from Shrewsbury decided to move on as it had a pretty ordinary menu.
We wandered a bit into the suburbs and spotted a local restaurant with one patron and the best menu. Within half an hour we were eating a delightful meal in a restaurant packed with locals and more waiting to grab a seat.
Struck of in search of a Gelato, but unfortunately all closed around 900, so it was back home and to bed to research some more for our time in Milan after a lovely time in Torino.
