One day in Turin: what to see, a walking itinerary, tickets and tours

Things to see in Turin in one day: the walking itinerary hour by hour

Turin works well in a single day because the baroque centre is a grid of straight streets and arcades, and the sights are a short walk from each other. Our itinerary starts at 9:00 in Piazza Castello, the city's drawing room with Palazzo Madama in the middle and the Royal Palace at the far end, and ends on the Po at sunset. You walk about 8 km: comfortable shoes and no luggage, which goes into the left-luggage at Porta Nuova or Porta Susa.

• 9:00 – Piazza Castello. A loop of the square, the courtyard of Palazzo Madama, the Galleria Subalpina and the cathedral with the chapel that holds the Shroud (the reliquary is sealed; you see a replica).
• 9:45 – The big museum. The Egyptian Museum (Via Accademia delle Scienze 6, five minutes away) or the Royal Museums with the Royal Palace, Armoury and Sabauda Gallery. One only: a good two and a half hours, with a booked slot.
• 12:30 – Via Roma and Piazza San Carlo. Under the arcades of Via Roma to the square with the twin churches of San Carlo and Santa Cristina and the historic cafés; then Via Garibaldi towards the Quadrilatero.
• 13:00 – Bicerin and lunch. A bicerin in Piazza della Consolata (Caffè Al Bicerin dates from 1763; a queue is normal) and lunch in the Quadrilatero Romano or at the Mercato Centrale in Porta Palazzo, the largest open-air market in Europe.

If you would rather not do the historic stretch alone, a two-hour walking tour of the centre at 10:00 covers Piazza Castello, the cathedral, Via Garibaldi and Piazza San Carlo with a guide and leaves you free for the museum in the afternoon: in that case move the museum to 14:00 and the Mole to 17:00.

Afternoon and evening: Mole Antonelliana, Gran Madre and aperitivo

After lunch head back towards the river along Via Po, the longest and most uniform arcade in the city, to the Mole Antonelliana: 167.5 metres, begun as a synagogue and now the symbol of Turin. Inside is the National Cinema Museum, which fills the central hall with its spiral of panels, and the glass panoramic lift that rises in 59 seconds to the terrace at 85 metres. Book the lift slot for 15:00–15:30: on weekends and holiday bridges the walk-up queue runs over an hour, and with the museum you need 1.5–2 hours in total. Details on the Mole and Cinema Museum page.

Around 17:00 cross Piazza Vittorio Veneto, one of the largest arcaded squares in Europe, and the Vittorio Emanuele I bridge to the Gran Madre di Dio, the round neoclassical church on the far bank. From there a cobbled path climbs in 15 minutes to Monte dei Cappuccini: the belvedere in front of the church frames the Mole with the Alps behind it and is the best sunset spot in the city, free and with no opening hours.

For aperitivo, a serious ritual in Turin since Carpano's vermouth of 1786, walk down to San Salvario (Largo Saluzzo, Via Baretti) or stay in Vanchiglia, the neighbourhood behind the Mole with the bars of Via Balbo and Piazza Santa Giulia: €10–15* with the buffet or a board of cold cuts. If you still have energy, finish with the evening Torino Magica tour, two and a half hours of legends, freemasonry and the sites of the white and black city: it starts around 21:00 and assumes nothing seen earlier.

Egyptian Museum or Royal Palace: one big museum, and which tour fits

The choice that shapes the day is which museum you take in the morning. The Egyptian Museum is the oldest museum devoted to Egypt anywhere, founded in 1824, with the Gallery of the Kings and the intact tomb of Kha and Merit: two and a half hours alone, two with a guide. The Royal Palace and the Royal Museums tell the Savoy story through state rooms, armoury, picture gallery and gardens, and are the right choice if you have seen Egyptian collections elsewhere or travel on a Monday morning, when the Egyptian Museum closes early and the Royal Museums are shut anyway: then the Egyptian Museum moves to the afternoon and the Mole to 17:00.

Three guided formats fit the day well. The Egyptian Museum small-group skip-the-line tour (€68–75*, 4.8★ from over 1,500 reviews on GetYourGuide) lasts about two hours with the ticket included: it starts in the morning and returns you in time for Piazza San Carlo. The 7.5-hour walking tour with Royal Palace and Egyptian Museum (€120–160*) replaces nearly all of the morning and early afternoon with a guide and entries included, leaving the evening free for the Mole; it suits anyone who does not want to book anything themselves. The Cinema Museum plus hop-on hop-off package (€35–45*, valid one day) is the version for those who walk little: the sightseeing bus links Piazza Castello, the Mole and the river with free re-boarding.

Turin in the rain, with kids, and what to do on a second day

In the rain Turin is still a walking city: its 18 km of arcades link Porta Nuova to Piazza Castello, Via Po to the Mole and Piazza San Carlo to Piazza Statuto with barely a step in the open, and the covered galleries (Subalpina, San Federico) are a few paces away. On a wet day you can afford both big museums by giving up the riverside walk: Egyptian Museum in the morning, Royal Museums after lunch, the Mole lift only if the cloud lifts, otherwise the Cinema Museum alone is still worth the visit.

With children the best bets are the Egyptian Museum, which has family trails and enough mummies to hold attention, the Mole lift and, time allowing, the Automobile Museum at Lingotto (metro line 1 to Lingotto, then ten minutes on foot), where 200 original cars and the Fiat rooms win over even those who care nothing for cars. Parco del Valentino with its Borgo Medievale is the free break along the river. Skip the Royal Palace under the age of six: state rooms, paintings and little to touch.

With a second day, the three classic choices are the Reggia di Venaria (30 minutes by bus or train, closed Mondays), Superga with the basilica and the view from the hill, and the Langhe between Alba and Barolo, a UNESCO landscape an hour's drive away that is the home of truffles and Barolo: without a car a guided tour is the practical option. Everything is compared on the day trips page.

Getting around, weekly closures, arriving from Milan and budget

The centre is flat and gridded, so you find your bearings at once: the parallel streets all lead to Piazza Castello or the Po. The metro has a single line, line 1, useful to reach the centre from Porta Nuova or Porta Susa (Porta Nuova or XVIII Dicembre stations) and to get out to Lingotto; tram 13 crosses Piazza Castello and ends at the Gran Madre, tram 4 links Porta Nuova with Porta Palazzo. A GTT urban ticket costs around €2* from tobacconists or by contactless on the metro gates. From Caselle airport the simplest link is the train or bus to Porta Susa: see the airport transfers page.

Weekly closures reorder the day. On Mondays the Royal Museums are closed, the Egyptian Museum runs until early afternoon only and the Automobile Museum opens in the afternoon; on Tuesdays the Cinema Museum with its lift and Palazzo Madama are closed. On Sundays everything is open and the morning slots at the Egyptian Museum vanish days ahead, as do lift slots on holiday weekends. Hours change with the seasons: check the official sites the day before and book slots before fixing train and lunch.

From Milan the Frecciarossa reaches Porta Susa in about an hour and regional trains in just under two: leaving at 8:00 and returning at 20:00 the whole itinerary fits, aperitivo included. A realistic self-guided budget is €60–110* per person with one museum, the Mole, a bicerin, lunch and aperitivo; the 1-day Torino+Piemonte Card (€29–35*) with two museums trims a few euros, and a guided tour lifts the total to €120–180*.

Tickets, the Torino+Piemonte Card and how we choose the platforms

Only two tickets genuinely need booking ahead: the timed entry to the Egyptian Museum (€18–22*) and the Mole lift, alone or combined with the Cinema Museum (€18–24*). The Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama and the Automobile Museum book up less, though a slot is still worth having on long weekends. The 1-day Torino+Piemonte Card (€29–35* on Tiqets) covers entry to the main city museums: with the Egyptian Museum plus the Royal Museums it already pays off, while for the Mole lift check on the official site whether it is included or only discounted. The full comparison is on the tickets and passes page.

For guided tours we check GetYourGuide first, which has the widest Turin catalogue and free cancellation up to 24 hours; Tiqets is our choice for the Card and for some museum time slots; Headout comes in only when it adds availability the others lack. To add a food element to the day, the two- or three-hour food tours between Porta Palazzo and the Quadrilatero are a good replacement for lunch.

Every price on this page is a band observed on partner catalogues and checked regularly: amounts marked * are indicative and the checkout price prevails. We are not the official site of any museum: opening hours and exceptional closures should be confirmed on the official pages of the Egyptian Museum, the Royal Museums and the Cinema Museum.