Turin Walking Tour: The Mole, the Po and the Royal Squares

Turin is the Italian city that people forget to visit and then cannot stop talking about. It was the seat of the House of Savoy for centuries and briefly the first capital of a united Italy, and it still carries itself like a royal city, all straight avenues, arcaded sidewalks and squares laid out to impress visiting ambassadors. This is one of our self-guided walking tours through that old center. It starts under the strange, soaring spire of the Mole Antonelliana, drops down to the river Po, climbs back up an arcaded street to the great square of the castle, and then works through the Royal Palace, the cathedral of the Shroud and the elegant Piazza San Carlo before finishing on Via Roma. The whole loop is about three kilometers, almost all of it flat and much of it under cover.

Before you set off

Allow around two hours at an easy stroll, and a good deal longer if you plan to ride the lift up the Mole or go inside the Royal Palace, each of which can fill an hour on its own. The ground is flat apart from the gentle slope down to the river and back, and the paving is mostly smooth stone, so ordinary comfortable shoes are fine. Turin's great gift to walkers is its porticoes, the covered arcades that line most of the main streets, so this is a rare walk that works almost as well in rain or hard summer sun as on a mild day. Mornings are quieter in the squares, while late afternoon brings the light that makes the stone glow and the locals out for an aperitivo. The panoramic lift in the Mole, the Royal Palace and the cathedral all keep their own hours and some sell timed tickets, so check before you go. Turin is also a serious coffee and chocolate city, so plan at least one stop at a historic café along the way. You will pass several of them, and sitting under a portico with a cup of something rich is part of the point.

Mole Antonelliana

Stand back on the street in front of the building and tip your head all the way up. The Mole Antonelliana is Turin's signature, a square brick hall topped by a tall, steep dome and then by a spire so slender it looks drawn rather than built. It stands about 167 meters high, and it appears on the Italian two cent euro coin, so you may already have one in your pocket. The story behind it is a lesson in what happens when an architect will not stop. It was begun in the 1860s as a synagogue for Turin's Jewish community, to designs by Alessandro Antonelli, who kept raising the height as the work went on. The costs climbed with it, the community eventually handed the unfinished building to the city in exchange for another site, and Antonelli's tower was finally completed in the late 1880s as a monument to Italian unity. A storm in the 1950s snapped off the top of the spire, which was rebuilt afterward. Today the hall holds the National Museum of Cinema, and a glass lift rises right through the open interior to a terrace with a view across the city to the Alps. From here, walk one block south to the arcades of Via Po and follow them east, downhill, to the great square at the bottom and the river beyond it, about ten minutes.

Po Riverfront

You have come down past the huge, sloping Piazza Vittorio Veneto to the edge of the Po, Italy's longest river, which runs along the eastern side of central Turin. Find a spot by the water and look across. Straight ahead, over the stone arches of the Vittorio Emanuele I bridge, stands the domed church of the Gran Madre di Dio, and behind it the green hill rises steeply, dotted with villas, with a small church and monastery perched on its first ridge. That hill is why Turin feels so different from other flat northern cities. Below you, along the embankment, runs a long line of brick arches set into the river wall. These are the Murazzi, built in the nineteenth century to tame the river and give the city a proper quay. Their vaults were once used by boatmen, fishermen and washerwomen, and in later decades they became bars and clubs, so the riverside has a reputation for long summer nights. In the daytime it is calmer, with rowers from the old riverside clubs sliding past and joggers on the paths. Take a few minutes here before turning back toward the heart of the city. When you are ready, walk back up through Piazza Vittorio and take Via Po all the way west, under its long arcades, to the great open square at its top, about fifteen minutes.

Piazza Castello

You are standing in Piazza Castello, the square from which the Savoy dukes and kings ran their state, and the place every main street of old Turin seems to point toward. In the middle sits the building that gives the square its name, and it is two buildings in one. Walk around it if you have time. From the back it is a medieval castle of red brick with round towers, and part of its core goes back to a gate in the Roman walls. From the front, facing Via Roma, it wears a pale, grand baroque facade with a sweeping double staircase inside, added in the early 1700s by the court architect Filippo Juvarra. This is Palazzo Madama, named after two royal widows, each known as the Madama Reale, who lived here and ruled as regents. Later it housed the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, and today it is a museum of ancient art. Turn slowly and look around the square. On its edges you will find the royal armory, the opera house, and a church with a plain front that hides an astonishing interlaced dome inside, the church of San Lorenzo. The palace of the kings closes the square to the north, behind its tall iron railings, and that is where you go next, a two minute walk.