Turin in 3 days

Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist (Duomo di Torino — built 1491-1498 in the Renaissance style; the only Renaissance church in Turin (the rest of the city's churches are Baroque); the significance: the cathedral is the permanent home of the Shroud of Turin (la Sindone di Torino) — the most contested religious relic in the world): the Shroud of Turin (the 4.4-metre × 1.1-metre linen cloth bearing the faint negative-image impression of a man who appears to have been crucified — the image shows the front and back of the body (the cloth was wrapped around the body); the wound patterns (the nail wounds in the wrists (not the palms — consistent with Roman crucifixion practice where the nails were driven through the carpal bones of the wrist for structural support; the Mediaeval paintings of crucifixion usually show the nails in the palms); the lance wound in the side; the crown of thorns wounds on the skull; the 120 scourge marks from a Roman flagrum (the Roman military whip with the lead or bone balls attached to the thongs)); the carbon-14 controversy (the 1988 Oxford-Arizona-Zurich radiocarbon dating found a date of 1260-1390 CE; subsequent research has challenged the sampling (the sample was taken from a repaired corner of the cloth) and the 2002 infrared spectrometry, the 2010 material analysis and other studies have challenged the 1988 result without resolving the authenticity question; the image formation mechanism remains unexplained (the image is a photographic negative that was only identified in 1898 when Secondo Pia made the first photograph of the Shroud)); the Shroud is not on permanent display (stored in an airtight container; a photographic reproduction is displayed in the Chapel of the Shroud designed by Guarino Guarini (1668-1694)).

Lingotto (the former Fiat automobile factory — built 1916-1923, designed by the engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco; the most architecturally innovative factory building ever constructed): the Lingotto building (the 5-storey reinforced concrete factory building (500 m long × 70 m wide) built on an assembly line principle: the raw materials entered at the ground floor; the car was progressively assembled on the ascending ramps and floors; the completed car emerged on the roof for testing on the rooftop oval test track (the pista di collaudo) — a 1,000-metre oval track on the rooftop of a 5-storey building, with banked curves to allow testing speeds of up to 90 km/h (designed for the Fiat 501 and subsequent models up to the Fiat Cinquecentto); the track operated until 1978 when Fiat moved production to modern facilities); the Renzo Piano conversion (the Lingotto factory was decommissioned in 1982 and converted by the Italian architect Renzo Piano (the Pompidou Centre, the Shard) into a cultural and commercial complex: the hotel (the NH Lingotto hotel), the concert hall (the Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli — the finest acoustics of any concert hall built in Italy since 1990), the conference centre, the shopping mall and the "Bubble" (the glass meeting pod that Piano suspended above the rooftop); the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli (the private art collection of the Fiat founder's family — the Picasso, the Matisse, the Canaletto views of Venice, the Tiepolo).

Basilica di Superga (the Baroque basilica on the Superga hill (672 m altitude — the highest point of the Turin hill range) that dominates the Turin cityscape from the east; designed by Filippo Juvara (the most important Baroque architect of Piedmont, who also designed the Stupinigi hunting palace) and built 1717-1731; the commission (the Duke of Savoy, Vittorio Amedeo II, vowed to build a basilica on the Superga hill if God granted him victory over the French-Spanish army besieging Turin in September 1706 (the Battle of Turin — the decisive battle that expelled the French from Piedmont after 4 months of siege; the French and Spanish forces were routed by the Savoy-Imperial army under Prince Eugene of Savoy and Vittorio Amedeo; the Savoy duke indeed built the basilica as promised); the basilica (the central dome (75 m high) and the two flanking towers visible from across the entire Turin plain; the crypt (the burial place of the Kings of Sardinia and their families — the most important royal mausoleum in Italy after the Pantheon in Rome)); the 1949 Superga air disaster (the Superga hillside is the site of the crash of the Torino football team's aircraft on May 4, 1949 (the plane carrying the entire Grande Torino team — the dominant Italian football team of the 1940s, five consecutive Italian league champions (1943-1949)) struck the retaining wall of the Superga basilica in fog; all 31 people on board were killed; the memorial plaque at the crash site is the most visited football memorial in Italy)); access by the historic Superga rack railway (tramvia).

Piedmontese dinner (the regional cuisine of Piedmont — one of the finest regional cuisines in Italy, heavily influenced by the French cooking tradition (Piedmont was part of the Savoy state and shared borders and culture with France)): the tajarin (the Piedmontese fresh egg pasta — the thinnest pasta in Italy (the Piedmontese tajarin uses up to 40 egg yolks per kilogram of flour, making the pasta extremely rich and golden yellow; served with the Piedmontese meat ragù or the truffle butter (the Piedmont white truffle (Tuber magnatum pico) from the Alba/Asti territory is the most expensive food ingredient by weight in the world (€2,000-5,000/kg) and the tajarin al tartufo bianco is the most luxurious pasta dish in Italian regional cuisine)); the bagna cauda (literally "hot bath" — the Piedmontese communal dish: a fondue of olive oil, garlic and anchovies kept warm over a flame, into which raw vegetables (cardoon (cardo gobbo di Nizza Monferrato — the distinctively bitter Piedmontese winter thistle), Jerusalem artichoke, bell pepper, carrot, cauliflower) are dipped); the Barolo wine (the "King of Italian wines" — from the Langhe hills south of Turin (the Barolo DOCG zone); made from the Nebbiolo grape (the most tannic and age-worthy grape in Italy); the minimum aging 38 months (minimum 18 in barrel); the greatest Barolo vintages (2010, 2013, 2016) require 15-20 years to reach peak expression).

Palazzo Madama (the building that contains 2,000 years of Turin's history in a single structure: the Roman gate (the Roman city of Augusta Taurinorum was founded by Augustus in 28 BCE at the crossing of the Po River; the Palazzo Madama site was the eastern gate of the Roman city (the Porta Praetoria — the main eastern entrance; the Roman gate towers are still visible in the basement of the Palazzo Madama, preserved in situ); the medieval castle (a medieval fortress was built using the Roman gate structure as its foundation in the 13th century — the towers of the medieval castle form the rear facade of the current Palazzo Madama); the Baroque facade (the magnificent Baroque facade of the Palazzo Madama was added by Filippo Juvara in 1718-1721 — one of the finest Baroque facades in Italy: the wide ceremonial staircase, the large windows with the carved stone surrounds and the classical articulation of the facade above the Roman and medieval lower levels creates the most visually complex building facade in Turin)); the Civic Museum of Ancient Art (the museum inside the Palazzo Madama: the collections of medieval and Renaissance art from Piedmont; the most important single work: the "Portrait of an Unknown Man" (1476) by Antonello da Messina — the most psychologically penetrating portrait of the 15th century).

Porta Palazzo (Piazza della Repubblica — the largest open-air market in Europe; 50,000 m² of market space; held Monday-Saturday (7:00-13:30) and Saturday afternoon (food market until 19:00); the most important street market in Italy): the market sections (the Porta Palazzo market is divided into permanent covered sections and outdoor areas: the fruit and vegetable market (the most spectacular section — the produce of Piedmont and the Po Valley displayed in the Italian market tradition (the purple Radicchio di Castelfranco, the white cardoon (cardo gobbo), the Cuneo chestnut, the Cavour persimmon, the Saluzzo apricot); the fish market (the Mediterranean seafood — the fresh anchovies (alice), the sea bream (orata), the squid (totano) from the Ligurian coast delivered daily to Torino); the Balon (the antique and secondhand market — every Saturday in the Borgo Dora district north of Porta Palazzo: the most interesting antique market in northern Italy, with the furniture, the silverware, the vintage clothing and the collectibles); the immigrant market (the Porta Palazzo market reflects Turin's immigrant community (the large Moroccan, Senegalese, Romanian and Chinese communities who have settled in the Porta Palazzo area since the 1990s); the North African food stalls (the merguez sausage, the harissa paste, the ras el hanout spice blend), the West African fabrics and the Asian grocery are integrated with the traditional Italian market stalls).

Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi (the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi — UNESCO World Heritage (Residences of the Royal House of Savoy); 10 km southwest of Turin; designed by Filippo Juvara and built 1729-1733 for King Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy; the most spectacular Rococo palace in Italy): the building (the hunting palace is designed in a radial plan around a central oval hall — the four symmetrical wings extend outward from the central hall like the arms of a stag (the stag being the symbol of the hunting tradition and the motif of the bronze stag weathervane on the dome of the central hall); the central hall (the Sala Centrale — the oval 2-storey ballroom with the original Rococo ceiling fresco (Giambattista Crosato, 1733) depicting Diana hunting on the Piedmontese plain; the trompe l'oeil architecture; the white and gold stucco decoration); the private apartments (the royal hunting apartments — the King's apartment and the Queen's apartment with the Piedmontese silk-damask walls, the period furniture and the trompe l'oeil landscape views painted on the walls (the illusionistic paintings of the Turin plain through windows that are actually solid walls)); the park (the Stupinigi park — the 172-hectare formal garden and deer park).

Turin final evening — the historic café culture (the most sophisticated café tradition in Italy, dating from the 18th-century Savoy court): the bicerin (the iconic Turin drink — a layered composition of espresso, drinking chocolate and cream (the whipped cream or fresh cream floated on top of the chocolate and espresso layers without mixing — the three layers visible through the small round glass); the bicerin was created at the Caffè Al Bicerin in Turin (Piazza della Consolata 5) in the 18th century; the café has operated at the same address since 1763 — making it the oldest continuously operating café in Piedmont; the recipe has remained unchanged: the espresso from the Piedmontese roast, the dense drinking chocolate (the cioccolata di copertura — the couverture chocolate melted with whole milk) and the heavy cream); the bicerin was praised by Alexandre Dumas, Friedrich Nietzsche (who lived in Turin 1888-1889 and consumed the bicerin obsessively) and Camillo Cavour (the Piedmontese statesman who engineered Italian unification); the Caffè Torino aperitivo (the Caffè Torino on Piazza San Carlo — the second-most famous café in Turin; the mosaic floor with the Turin bull (the bò — the symbol of Turin; the tradition that rubbing the bull's private parts with the heel brings good luck)); the Piazza San Carlo (the "drawing room of Turin" — the 17th-century Baroque piazza with the equestrian statues of Emanuele Filiberto).