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Hello from Austin
Ian Sutton
1000+ Posts
Welcome!
A couple of fine cities, to varying degrees still somewhat 'under the radar.
Is there anything specific of interest to you e.g. food, art, wine, walking, museums etc, or anything that drew you to those cities that you'd like to really explore? Likewise do you want day trips out, or want to focus on the cities? Especially with Torino, I may be able to make very specific suggestions.
Turin/Torino has been a repeat destination for us (something between 12-14 separate visits I believe), so there's much I know well, but we always seem to discover something new. The tourist office is good, and they're good at putting on less obvious events / tours e.g. the producer visits to places like Leone the historic caramelle producer, or the more recent inclusion of dining car tours of the city by tram.
As a starter, if food is a strong interest, this post contains a link to a google map I set up of interesting specialist Torinese food shops (plus other stuff). I very much love grazing these food shops. https://www.sloweurope.com/community/threads/northern-italy-mid-sept-itinerary-help.6841/#post-43543
We've just been to Genoa/Genova on one holiday, and enjoyed it. The city seems oddly split by the old town, which separates the port/docks area from the central shopping area, and that old town can *feel* a little intimidating to walk through, though to clarify, we never felt particularly unsafe. I very much liked the main covered market, and there's a good mix of shops. Food was good and we found a nice enoteca in the old town. There are certainly some super day trips out of Genova.
Regards
Ian
A couple of fine cities, to varying degrees still somewhat 'under the radar.
Is there anything specific of interest to you e.g. food, art, wine, walking, museums etc, or anything that drew you to those cities that you'd like to really explore? Likewise do you want day trips out, or want to focus on the cities? Especially with Torino, I may be able to make very specific suggestions.
Turin/Torino has been a repeat destination for us (something between 12-14 separate visits I believe), so there's much I know well, but we always seem to discover something new. The tourist office is good, and they're good at putting on less obvious events / tours e.g. the producer visits to places like Leone the historic caramelle producer, or the more recent inclusion of dining car tours of the city by tram.
As a starter, if food is a strong interest, this post contains a link to a google map I set up of interesting specialist Torinese food shops (plus other stuff). I very much love grazing these food shops. https://www.sloweurope.com/community/threads/northern-italy-mid-sept-itinerary-help.6841/#post-43543
We've just been to Genoa/Genova on one holiday, and enjoyed it. The city seems oddly split by the old town, which separates the port/docks area from the central shopping area, and that old town can *feel* a little intimidating to walk through, though to clarify, we never felt particularly unsafe. I very much liked the main covered market, and there's a good mix of shops. Food was good and we found a nice enoteca in the old town. There are certainly some super day trips out of Genova.
Regards
Ian
MACinAUS
New Member
Thank you for the welcome with some amazingly good advice. We have visited Italy previously and were looking for a different experience so we chose these cities.
We enjoy wine and want to tour some producers of Barolo and Barberesco. I haven't had great luck in locating an affordable tour from Torino and have been thinking about taking the train to Alba where there are many more tour operators. We live in TX and drive too much so we are looking for a tour that has transportation. Are you aware of any out of Torino, or do you think the Alba day trip is best?
I appreciate it,
Mary Ann
We enjoy wine and want to tour some producers of Barolo and Barberesco. I haven't had great luck in locating an affordable tour from Torino and have been thinking about taking the train to Alba where there are many more tour operators. We live in TX and drive too much so we are looking for a tour that has transportation. Are you aware of any out of Torino, or do you think the Alba day trip is best?
I appreciate it,
Mary Ann
Welcome here MACinAus, and enjoy the planning.
Agree with Ian that a bit more info about your interests would be helpful, including how much time you plan on being in each city. Having been both to Genoa and Torino (at least twice to each one), I can only say that these both can offer a great experience, and that we really love these cities.
Personally I don't tend to do day trips from a city, and prefer moving the accommodation so that it will be closer to "day trip" destinations - the time spent exiting and entering a big city is somewhat a waste of this precious commodity to me. However, being based in a city has its benefits of course.
Can't help with wine tours, just to add that tons of options can open up with a proper search, and as Ian mentioned, Torino and Piemonte offer very good resources of info for tourists. You can start with Turismotorino.
Agree with Ian that a bit more info about your interests would be helpful, including how much time you plan on being in each city. Having been both to Genoa and Torino (at least twice to each one), I can only say that these both can offer a great experience, and that we really love these cities.
Personally I don't tend to do day trips from a city, and prefer moving the accommodation so that it will be closer to "day trip" destinations - the time spent exiting and entering a big city is somewhat a waste of this precious commodity to me. However, being based in a city has its benefits of course.
Can't help with wine tours, just to add that tons of options can open up with a proper search, and as Ian mentioned, Torino and Piemonte offer very good resources of info for tourists. You can start with Turismotorino.
Ian Sutton
1000+ Posts
Hi Mary Ann
I'm not aware of tour operators running from Torino, but worth a check on turismotorino.it to see if the tourist office run any.
For Barolo/Barbaresco visits, there are a few drivers who can be hired for touring the region, though we've never done this (we've always self-organised/navigated). I have however seen these recommended for Langhe (Barolo/Barbaresco) in the wine site I linked to below...
- Sandro Minella (s.minella@gmail.com)
- Amanda Courtney: https://www.amandaswineadventures.com/
Typically we stay in one of the villages, which makes getting around easier. We've stayed in Corneliano d'Alba & Santa Vittoria d'Alba just over the river in the Roero region, Monforte d'Alba, Serralunga d'Alba and La Morra in Barolo region, and Treiso in Barbaresco region. All were good in different ways.
If doing it as a day trip, then I'd recommend limiting to Barbaresco, as that's within an easy taxi ride of Alba, so train to Alba -> Taxi from the rank to your 1st appointment, ideally walking to any others that follow and -> taxi back to Alba -> train back to Torino. Barolo and it's villages are a bit further away (~ 20-30 minutes by car from memory). I tend to use google maps to choose wineries close to each other, and often looking for a mix of known/less known, with the latter often great experiences. Alternatively arrange for a private driver if that appeals more, and that gives you greater option to have visits more spread out, indeed across different villages.
The Langhe, Roero (and now also Monferrato) tourist office https://www.visitlmr.it/it is excellent and they have superb online resources. Included in that is contact details, days, hours, languages spoken and cost for visiting wineries listed, plus if they continued with it a service for booking visits. We've only used that service once, as we're happy to contact & arrange visits direct, but the listings can be invaluable. A typical visit may take 90-120 minutes, and thus we tend to book them 2 hours apart with a short walk often pleasing. It often starts with the fermentation vessels (or a quick look out over their vineyards), then onto the ageing barrels (from stainless steel to barriques to the large botti), perhaps a bottling line, bottles stacked up ready to be labelled / shipped or simply aged further, followed by a tasting in their tasting room.
If looking for some specific style (the traditionalist vs. modernist battle has softened over the years, but back in the 1990s it did rather divide opinion and even families), then this thread on a US wine forum is a wonderful 'wiki' style resource that will help inform where each winery leans, from traditional (large slavonian oak or chestnut botti for ageing / long maceration times for the grapes / more hands off approach in the winery) to modernist (french barriques for ageing, shorter maceration with roto-fermenters / more open to new winemaking ideas). Most sit somewhere in the middle these days, adopting what they like from either camp. https://www.wineberserkers.com/t/traditional-vs-modern-barolo-barbaresco/99925
If you can spare 2-3+ days in your plans then staying there really makes the experience that much better. I had a quick look at getting between Alba and Genova, and there are options that avoid doubling back to Torino, as there's a bus to Asti and then a direct train from Asti to Genova. I will also say that finding time to walk through the vineyards (yay! for shared ownership/inheritance as open access to all the growers, also means open access for us tourists). The walking is great, but that it's through well-loved single vineyard locations adds to the joy).
p.s. I like your choices of cities. My first trip to Torino was in 1995 and back then tourists somewhat rare, and one local resident was pleased, yet surprised we'd chosen his city "It's like me going to Coventry" (or in a US context - Detroit). Tourism has grown steadily, but it remains first and foremost a functional city, and that's certainly how we felt about Genova... and that's the way we like our Italian cities
jmc
10+ Posts
Hi @MACinAUS and Welcome!
While Ian is the master and his posts have been instrumental in helping us plan our trip in November (Truffles!) two other wine tour resouces I found are:
Alessio - Private Barolo Wine Tour, we booked three days with him and he will be picking us up in Torino each day and taking us to the wine growers.
Marco - Piedmont wine & food tour - Langa Wine Tour.
Both of these individuals are wine makers themselves and have good reviews on their sites, but Marco's site has more information and Trip Advisor reviews than Alessio.
I chose Alessio simply because I had not heard back from Marco after a few weeks, and it turns out his email system had an issue.
I was drawn to these individuals because they are both wine makers and my experience with a few different tours has been that winemaker led tours tend to be more in depth, with time in the vineyard, looking at the soils, discussing yields, vine management, etc.
All this being said, this is a bit of splurge, and so if you are open to public transit and spending time at https://www.visitlmr.it/it as Ian has proposed, you can have some marvelous experiences!
Good luck!
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jmc
10+ Posts
@MACinAUS - oops, I forogt, while the https://www.visitlmr.it/it is a great site, the site that I foud easier to use for discoverring wine producers to visit is here: Home Page - Piemonte on wine
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Ian Sutton
1000+ Posts
You're too kind JMC, and there are absolutely gaps or biases in my knowledge / experience. Private tours are indeed a massive gap, so great to have your reccos for Mary Ann