Torino

Made a very last minute decision to go a day trip to Turin with a friend, as its less than two hour train journey away. Got there a bit before midday and went for a wander around, its actually a larger city than I had thought and it even has a metro which I would not have expected, although I suspect its not very extensive. Its supposed to be one of the wealthiest cities and you can definitely tell by walking around, just by quality and beauty of the streets, and also the quantity of designer shops. It seems to have quite a few large, main piazzas but they're all very different. The one similarity seeming to be random bits of scaffolding all over the place which slightly detracted from the aesthetic. Did make taking photos slightly more challenging! Positioning statues in the frame to hide the scaffolded building behind. Walked down to the synagogue which is huge (as you can see in the photo), and then went on the hunt for food. We may have made a bit of a mistake going on a Monday, as Mondays are notorious in Italy for everything being shut... After seeing more of Turin's back streets than we ever intended to, we finally found an open pizzeria for lunch. After we headed across the river and up Monte dei Cappucini where you get the most fantastic view across the city and across to the mountains, which are still slightly snowcapped. We went back via the Palazzo Reale which is supposed to have beautiful gardens, and they certainly looked pretty from what we could see through the gates.. Unsurprisingly they were shut due to yet more building works. So we wandered back towards the station to catch the train back to Milan, and even made it back in time for group Game of Thrones viewing!