Turin Po and Valentino Audio Walking Tour (Self-Guided)

Most visitors to Turin stay inside the grid of arcaded streets, and they miss the side of the city that locals love most on a free afternoon: the river. This walk starts high on the green hill across the Po, at the viewpoint of Monte dei Cappuccini, then drops down past the great domed church of the Gran Madre, crosses the river into Piazza Vittorio Veneto and follows the riverbank south to Valentino Park, with its castle, its botanical garden and a medieval village that is not quite what it seems. It is one of the gentler self-guided walking tours in the city, roughly three kilometers in all, with one short climb at the very start and shade for most of the second half.

Before you set off

Give yourself about two hours at an unhurried pace, more if you linger in the park or step into the botanical garden. The first stop sits on a hill, reached by a ramp and steps from the riverside road, so the walk begins with a short, steep climb of a few minutes. If you would rather skip it, you can start at the Gran Madre and look up at the hill instead. After that, everything is downhill or flat, along wide embankments and park paths with plenty of trees. Morning light is best for the view from the hilltop, when the sun is behind you and the city lies clear across the river, and on a crisp day you can see a long wall of snowy Alps on the horizon. Late afternoon is lovely in the park, when Turin comes out to stroll, run and row. The botanical garden opens on limited days and the castle is a working university building, so check what is open before you go. Bring water in summer and a layer for the breeze off the river.

Monte dei Cappuccini

Catch your breath at the top and walk to the edge of the terrace. Below you, the Po curves past, and beyond it the whole of central Turin is laid out like a map: the long straight streets, the domes and bell towers, and, rising above all of it, the needle spire of the Mole Antonelliana. On a clear day, the line of the Alps fills the far horizon, and the sharp pyramid of Monviso, the mountain where the Po itself begins, stands out to the southwest. That view is why people have been climbing this little hill for centuries. The church behind you, Santa Maria al Monte, belongs to a Capuchin friary founded here in the late sixteenth century, which is how the hill got its name. The friars chose the spot for its height, and for a long time it also mattered as a lookout over the river crossing below. Today the friary shares the hilltop with the National Mountain Museum, a fitting neighbor in a city that has always looked toward the peaks. When you have had your fill of the view, take the ramp back down to the riverside road and walk north along it, with the river on your left, to the great columned church about ten minutes away.

Gran Madre di Dio

Stand in front of the steps and look up. If the building feels familiar, it is meant to. The Gran Madre di Dio was modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, with a deep portico of columns and a broad, shallow dome. It was built in the early nineteenth century to celebrate the return of King Victor Emmanuel I to Turin in 1814, after the years of French rule under Napoleon, and the king's statue stands in front of it, facing the city he came back to. It was deliberately placed at the far end of the bridge, so that from Piazza Vittorio and Via Po it closes the view like a stage set. Look at the two large statues flanking the steps. They represent Faith and Religion, and the figure of Faith holds up a chalice. Turin loves its legends of white and black magic, and one of the most popular says that her gaze points to the hiding place of the Holy Grail. Nobody has found it yet. The crypt below the church holds a memorial to the soldiers of Turin who died in the First World War. Now turn around and cross the river on the wide stone bridge straight in front of you, into the big square on the far side, about five minutes.

Piazza Vittorio Veneto

You are in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, one of the largest squares in Europe, and almost certainly the largest you have ever stood in that is ringed entirely by arcades. Locals just call it Piazza Vittorio. Notice that it slopes. From the top, where Via Po comes in, to the river end, the ground drops several meters, and the architect of the 1820s disguised this by adjusting the buildings so that the cornices still look level to the eye. Stand in the middle and look in both directions. Uphill, Via Po runs straight to Piazza Castello and the old royal center. Downhill, the square opens onto the bridge you just crossed, the Gran Madre and the green hill behind it, so the city seems to step down to the water and the country beyond. The square is named after the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, at the end of the First World War. Under its porticoes are cafés, bookshops and bars, and in the evening this is one of the city's favorite places for an aperitivo. From the river end of the square, take the steps or ramp down to the embankment and turn left, walking south with the river on your left, about five minutes.