Torino (Turin, in English) is not one of the better known cities in Italia. It only occasionally makes an appearance in travel videos, and travel writer Rick Steves' (in my opinion) gawdawful book "Rick Steves Italy", supposedly a "comprehensive" guide, doesn't even mention the region it's in, much less the city itself. But then, the book doesn't mention massive parts of the country. (My advice? DON'T buy that book.) The city did feature in a 1960's movie named The Italian Job and its more recent remake.

Also, you know Fiat cars? The T in the name stands for Torino. And of course there is the Shroud of Turin (Sindone di Torino), although that's a subject not much discussed since carbon dating was done in the 1980s.

Historically and more importantly it was the main power base of the House of Savoy, which was a leading force in the reunification of Italia ("il risorgimento") in the mid to late 1800s.

Torino is the 4th largest city in Italia by population. It is the capital of the land locked, north west region of Piemonte (Piedmont), which is second only to Sicilia (Sicily) in area. It's also an exceptionally beautiful region, as will be seen in other galleries. It shares external borders with France and Switzerland, and internal ones with the Alpine region of Aosta Valley to the north west, Lombardia to the east and Liguria to the south east.

Torino is a beautiful city as well and there is a massive amount to see there. We barely scratched the surface of it.

We rented an apartment in Torino and used it as our base of operations for almost a week. That doesn't mean that we had a lot of time in Torino, however, as we spent one night meeting two of our party in Milano, and another night (and most of the day either side) getting to or from or in Courmayeur.

Except for the parts which are large enough to require their own gallery (like our visit to the former royal palace, the automotive museum, the cinema museum), I'll put most of the "assorted" photos from our stay in this gallery.