Life in Truffle-Scented Turin

As part of my Local Guide Series, I’m delighted to offer up this article on the delights of Torino, by Olivia Windsor. You can learn more about Olivia in her bio at the bottom, as well as on her helpful (and beautiful) website, Livguine.

Life in Truffle-Scented Turin 

I never intended to move to Turin when I first left Australia for Italy in 2019. In fact, I never intended to be in Italy for more than a year. But the land of la dolce vita has a way of getting under your skin, and if I thought I’d have ‘my fill’ of her after just 365 days, boy was I mistaken! 

 Photo by Rhianna May Photography. for Untold Italy Tours

My name is Olivia Windsor (or Livguine if you know me from Instagram or my blog) and I’m an Australian woman with 0% Italian heritage, but an irrepressible fascination with the culture. I grew up in Melbourne surrounded by Italian-Australians and from the time I was 5 years old, I wanted to be ‘Italian’ because all of my friends were and they always had the very best lunches at school and got to do cool things like passata making days. I learnt basic Italian at primary and highschool and dreamed of the day I would set foot in this faraway, exotic land. 

My first trip to Italy at twenty fell sadly flat. It was a whirlwind Contiki tour - one of those crazy ones where you see more European bars and sunrises than eat delicious meals and visit galleries. However, my next trip a few years later sealed my love for Italy. It might have been the jetlag, it might have been waking early to watch the sunrise over the Ligurian Sea, or stumbling down into town to discover it had been decorated as a giant lemon (yes my very first ever sagra experience!), or it might have been twirling perfectly cooked seafood pasta around my fork while breathing in the seaside air. Whatever it was, I was hooked. In fact, I was so enamoured, I could have cried on that plane ride home. 

It’d be another 3 years before I bought my one way ticket, packed my biggest suitcase; and prepared for a year abroad. I had a burning desire to soak in the culture, learn the language, and most of all, learn more about food and wine. What better place than Italy?! 

Since I assumed I had the language fundamentals, I’d signed up for an intensive 6 week course at a language school and a home stay in Bologna. Upon arriving at my new host family’s house, I quickly discovered that my self-confidence in my Italian language abilities was seriously misguided —hilarity, miscommunication but also friendship ensued. 

Fast forward to about 6 months into my ‘year in Italy’ and after working on a few agriturismi in the central regions, the wine harvest up north beckoned me. And that’s how I moved to Piedmont - to work the vendemmia at the family-run, organic winery called Cascina Iuli in Monferrato (not the more famous Langhe region). I was only meant to stay a week, but I ended up staying 6! They became like family with nonna teaching me her recipes for ‘friculin’ and homemade pasta, and the owner’s kids asking me to read them bedtime stories. 

When the harvest work was done though, it was time to move on and I was itching to get back into some kind of city life. Turin made sense because it was only about an hour away from the winery, and the winery owners had a friend living there who invited me to stay whilst I searched for a job.  

Long story short, a week into living in Turin, not only did I find two jobs teaching English, I also met my now fiancee Andrea, and the rest is history as they say. Little did we know the pandemic was looming, and I count my lucky stars that I moved there before it happened, otherwise who knows where in the world I might be now. It was a bureaucratic nightmare trying to convert my working holiday visa (Australians and Canadians are able to apply for this) into a ‘special pandemic’ working visa (which took two years to be finalise and meant I wasn’t able to leave the country. This of course required the help of an immigration lawyer!)

Before moving to Turin, I had heard very little about this elegant city. In fact, I’d only considered its existence about a month before I moved to Italy thanks to a Jamie Oliver episode and I found myself rather taken with its elegance. None of my friends or family had heard of Turin (let alone been there) and the locals turning to look at me when they heard me speaking English quickly made me realize I was now living in an ‘off-the-beaten-path’ city.  This is all of course part of its charm, but a reason why you might want to consider taking a tour (with someone who speaks Italian) to really understand the city. 

It’s easy to fall in love with Turin. Those first few months I walked under the covered porticoes, past the impressive Royal Palace, gorgeous palazzi and piazza and spied the captivating Mole Antonelliana (the symbol of Turin) always hovering in the distance. All lit up against the backdrop of the Alps and oftentimes the mysterious, romantic fog that is typical of the region. 

Turin was the very first capital of unified Italy and a Royal one at that. You can feel the impact this history has had on the city through its Baroque architecture and refined style. There are many wonderful things to do in Turin from visiting the Palace, climbing the Mole Antonelliana, strolling the higgledy piggledy streets of the Quadrilatero (the oldest part of town), shopping for produce at the Porta Palazzo market (the largest open air market in all of Europe!) and discovering the Egyptian Museum (which holds the biggest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo). Even with all this to do, my favorite local activity is eating and drinking. 

Torino is a gastronomic powerhouse. In fact, the Slow Food movement was born here and the home of Barolo, the King of Wines.. As a dedicated foodie, I have found myself in a real kind of heaven on Earth. The food in Turin is unlike anything you’ve likely tried in the rest of Italy. Given Turin’s proximity to France, up here it’s all about the butter, creamy cheeses, high quality Fassona beef; full-bodied red wines. The typical pasta is known as ‘agnolotti’ (little pasta parcels filled with roast veal) or ‘tajarin’ (dialect word for tagliolini) and served in roast beef drippings enriched with butter or perhaps even more decadently, a shaving of Autumnal white truffles. 

Antipasti or appetizers is a big thing here and they do them superbly. From vitello tonnato (try it at Le Vitel Etonne) which is thin slices of roast veal topped with a creamy mayonnaise-tuna-caperberry sauce, to cured anchovies in salsa verde to the iconic Bagna Cauda, which is an addictive garlicky, anchovy, butter dipping sauce. . All of this is even more delicious than it sounds, especially washed down with a glass of Nebbiolo, Dolcetto d’Alba, or Barbera red wine. No wonder Turin has a winning reputation for gourmands. 

Now let’s turn our attention to Turin’s sweeter side. Chocolate is a seriously big deal in Turin dating back to its royal past. In fact, the mask of Turin (i.e. Italy’s carnival festival) is Gianduja after their famous chocolate. It’s made with dark chocolate mixed with the best hazelnuts in the world (the Tonda Gentile) and known as giandiutto. You can’t miss a visit to artisan chocolatier Guido Gobino to try some for yourself. Turin takes the chocolate one step further with their bicerin —coffee-chocolate-whipped cream concoction that will have you buzzing for hours. Be sure to pop into Al Bicerin for the original version of Bicerin, which is also my favorite.  my favorite interpretation (and the original!)

If you’re planning a trip, my advice is to visit in the shoulder seasons. Spring is beautiful with flowers blossoming and comfortable temperatures. However, Fall is undoubtedly my favorite season. So many exciting things happen in Autumn. There’s the wine harvest, the white truffle festival, and the city glows all shades of soft browns and reds as the colors of the leaves change. 

Using the city as a base for exploring all the delights Piedmont has to offer is ideal. In an hour you can reach the UNESCO-heritage listed Langhe wine region and sip your way through some of Italy’s very best wines (and go for a truffle hunt!); visit the beautiful mountain town Cuneo (and try the famous Cuneesi al Rhum chocolates); hit the slopes at some of the best ski resorts; or go hiking and try the tasty cuisine of the mountain refuges.

My love for Torino runs deep for obvious reasons, but none least than the fact I’m about to marry a Torinese and have been welcomed into his Piemontese family. I love to help people discover some of the city’s secrets on the small group tours I designed and lead for Untold Italy. In the spring and fall, we take groups of ten (or fewer) people around the region for 5 days to lift the lid on Piemontese culture and cuisine. During our tour, we visit the local market, my favorite historic cheesemonger, a fairytale castle in the Langhe, pretty hilltop towns in the countryside, attend a cooking class at a local woman’s farmhouse, visit boutique women-run wineries, and even go on a truffle hunt! If tours aren’t really your thing, I also offer private tour planning in the region.

If you’re still not convinced Turin is worth a trip, have a read of my article on 7 reasons Turin is worth visiting and let me know what you think.

My fiancé and I have moved to Rome, another profoundly incredible place - there’s a reason they call it the Eternal City! But Turin lives in our heart and we make frequent trips back to Andrea’s hometown to visit family and friends, and of course soak in the truffle scented air and eat our bodyweight in the best and pasta in the land. 

Photo by Rhianna May Photography for Untold Italy Tours

Olivia Windsor is an Australian who moved to Italy in 2019 and has been there ever since. After living in Turin for several years and meeting her Piemontese partner, she now calls Rome home (in addition to Turin and her native Melbourne). Olivia is the writer of the travel blog Livguine and designs and hosts multiday small group tours in lesser-known regions around Italy including Piedmont. A committed foodie, she is currently undertaking her Italian Sommelier exams and never goes long before thinking about her next meal.

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