24 hours in Turin

Whenever I tell people that I don't want children, the reaction is always either a disbelieving 'why not?!' or a condescending 'you'll change your mind'. But what people probably don't realise when they give one of these wrong responses, is how amazing my life is. For example, if I had kids, I wouldn't be able to fly to Italy for 24 hours on a whim, just because I had no plans for the weekend would I? Which is exactly what Ollie and I have just done! Finding ourselves with an empty diary for the weekend, I thought it'd be nice to go away for the night. And while I initially thought it'd be somewhere in the UK, we could hardly pass up £35 return flights to Turin. After all, we do love Italian food...

Our trip started bright and early on Saturday morning at Birmingham airport. I'd found the flights on skyscanner, which is where I find most of my bargains, and it worked out especially well in this case as we flew out with Ryanair but back with Jet2. With the flight being only 1hr45, it was only a hop, skip and a jump before we were in Turin, where we headed straight to our hotel, the Hotel Palace Turin. By some work of the gods, our room was already ready when we arrived at around 11am, and judging by how nice it was, I was kind of sad we were only staying in it for one night (it had a walk-in wardrobe and everything). Plus, it was another bargain! Only £100 for the night and it was in a really great central location, perfect for exploring the city.

We ended up going to Turin because the flights were available for a Saturday-Sunday trip and were super cheap, rather than because it was necessarily on the bucket list or anything. And given the last minute nature of our trip, I didn't have a whole lot of time to research things to do there before we went. But I did manage to have a quick read, and something they're famous for is a rich, chocolately coffee called a Bicerin. So our first stop was to head off in search of one! We ended up sitting in this beautiful galleria, for a Bicerin and a pastry at a café called Baratti & Milano. I've never been a fan of any mochas I've tried because I always think they just taste like a hot chocolate, but a Bicerin, I was a definite fan of!

And then we had a touristy little walk of all the main areas of the city. There were a number of beautiful piazzas and churches and castles; I just love Italian architecture so much and being back in Italy just re-affirmed my love of the country so much, amid ticking off my third Italian city. This was actually our second February Italy visit too, having gone to Venice in February 2020. Italy is naturally not particularly warm at this time of year (in fact it was bitterly cold), but it was dry (that's the main thing) and it even brightened up throughout the day. Luckily I'd gone prepared for cold weather, so I'd planned my outfit accordingly. I went with dark blue skinny jeans (ASOS), cream top with floral lace sleeves (shein), cream chunky trainers (also shein), rust tailored coat (new look) and pretty silk scarf that I actually bought not-a-million-miles-from-Turin, in Milan.

They say that not all those who wander are lost... Except, sometimes, they are. By this point we were getting hungry so we were wandering around in search of a restaurant. But a combination of lots of closed roads, lots of takeaway places and a sense of direction that is generally lacking, meant we ended up somewhat walking round in circles! Luckily we found a lovely little restaurant to break us out of our reverie, and hit the spot of our pizza and pasta cravings. They did a pretty mean aperol spritz too and shockingly, the total bill only came to €22! That's something that definitely stood out to me about Turin; how cheap it was. Surprisingly, given how lovely it was, it didn't seem to be a particularly touristy place and everyone, everywhere we went was Italian, with most of the servers speaking fairly broken English. Which not only meant that I felt like I got a slice of the real authentic Italy, but it also meant everything was super cheap!

The sun had well and truly come out by the time we left the restaurant (although it was still absolutely freezing) so the walking tour continued, but this time with a nicer, bluer sky. We saw the park, the fountains, the mole antonelliana tower and sooo many beautiful buildings that I ended up with about a thousand photos to sort through when I got back. To say that it seemed that most people who flew to Turin on our flight were heading to the alps for a skiing holiday, they were definitely missing out by not visiting the city in my opinion.

Then we ventured down to the river to soak in the view, before finishing up our day with an apéritif. I obviously just couldn't last any longer without another aperol spritz and clearly the waitress thought Ollie couldn't either, as she misunderstood his request for a beer so he ended up with one too!

After some time spent relaxing and soaking in the ginormous bath tub back at the hotel, it was time to get ready for date night! Again, I'd been very conscious of the cold weather when packing for this trip but I still wanted to be a little dressy of course. So I went with a high neck black top (missguided), asymmetrical printed skirt (shein), cream heels with gold chain detail (shein) and then a cute little pop of colour in the form of this teeny tiny sage and gold bag.

We'd spent ages looking for restaurants online before we headed out, knowing that with only one night in Turin, it was a do-or-die decision. What we found is that we ended up overwhelmed by choices, one restaurant option slowly blending into the next! We eventually settled on a place called Barnum, as it looked lovely and was located in the San Salvario district (the old red light district where the night life was, which I wanted to check out having mostly explored the central and northern areas in the day). Our decision definitely ended up being do (rather than die)!

I hadn't picked it up from the name, but the restaurant was PT Barnum theme so it had circus-style decor and lots of old photos on the walls. I took it as a good sign immediately that the place was small and packed full of Italian people, with what seemed to be the head chef/owner being the one to seat us and tell us about the menu. The menu was another thing I took as a good sign, as it was all in handwritten Italian which suggests that 1) it's not a tourist spot and 2) the menu changes because the ingredients are always sourced fresh based on what's available. We ended up ordering a mixed cheese and meat platter to start, and then a home-made filled pasta dish and a pork cheek special for the mains (the pork cheek wasn't the most visually appealing but wow it was tasty). Everything was amazing from the food, to the wine, to the service to the free shot of super-strong grappa that we ended the night with.

And just like that, it was time for us to pop off back home! The next morning, we waved goodbye to our hotel, hopped on a plane after a couple of hours in the airport lounge, flew over the most beautiful view of the alps and then arrived back home only 24 hours after we'd left. The whole trip was such a wonderful and unexpected way to spend the weekend that not only made me feel like I was peeking behind the red curtain to sample a slice of the real Italy, but that also reminded me once again how blessed I am and how amazing my life is. I can think of no better way to spend a spare 24 hours.