10 Reasons to visit Torino - part 1. The market of Porta Palazzo

If you've never been to Turin or Piedmont, the westernmost region of Northern Italy, bordering France, you probably don't know the role this city and this region played in the transformation of the Italian peninsula into a single state under the rule of the House of Savoy. To understand Turin, its welcoming austerity, its extraordinary culinary tradition, and its vibrant cultural scene, you need to live here for some time, or at least plan a longer stay to experience firsthand the backstage of Italy's first capital, and undoubtedly the most elegant city of Italy.

I've chosen to provide you with a list of 10 reasons to include Turin in your bucketlist, and possibly to spend more than a fleeting stop on a longer itinerary, lest you regret having had too little time to discover it. Some are obvious and correspond to the "must-see" stops or visits once in the city, while others are meant to let you experience the city from the inside, as if you were a citizen.

For a very brief period between 1861 and 1864 Turin was the first capital of a unified Italy. Previously, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sicily, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and finally of Italy. Each of these historical milestones has impacted the city's art, architecture, culture, and cuisine, giving it avenues, palaces, events, and recipes that the entire world now looks up to with admiration and respect.

I chose to kick off this 10-stop journey through the city of Torino with a place that is dear to all Turin’s residents: the market.

Porta Palazzo: The Largest Food Market in Europe

All major European cities host important food markets, such as Borough Market in London, Marché Bastille in Paris, Mercado de Santa Catalina in Barcelona, ​​and so on. However, one of the largest markets in Europe (some say the largest of all) is located in Turin, right in the heart of the city.

Known as Porta Palazzo due to its proximity to the Royal Palace of Turin, this market entirely covers the city's largest square, Piazza della Repubblica. However, if you ask directions to this square using its official name, you may encounter surprised or doubtful faces, since no one refers to this place by its toponymic name, but simply as "Porta Palazzo." It's a name that immediately conjures up images of a market, of bustling street vendors loudly shouting out their offerings and prices, trying to attract more customers.

Porta Palazzo is so vast to cover over 50,000 square meters and includes both indoor and outdoor areas.

The outdoor space features a section dedicated to the sale of fruit and vegetables from various sources, both within and outside Piedmont and Italy, often including import products to meet the needs of the ethnic communities that have settled in the northern part of the city. The main covered space is known as the "clock canopy," (tettoria dell’orologio) an iron and glass structure housing the butcher's stalls, bakeries, cheese shops, and fresh pasta vendors. Here you can find great mountain cheeses as well as Parmigino Reggiano, or the several Piedmontese cured meats, such as raw pork salami or the very traditional cooked salami, unknown outside of Piedmont. Behind the clock canopy is a smaller pavilion without side walls called the "Farmers' Canopy “ (Tettoia dei contadini). This is where you must come to meet the actual local farmers those who work the fields just outside the city or on the hills of Langhe and Monferrato or along the Alpine valleys, bringing to the city the seasonal first fruits, cheeses, cured meats, honey, and other delicacies of this generous land.

A little tip: if you go to the market in the afternoon, after 3.00 pm you can get fruit and vegetables at really good prices because vendors prefer not to stock up on perishable goods and might be more willing to negotiate more on the price than in the morning.