In Tune with Turin: History, scenic splendour, divine food and Italian Job locations – the host city of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest has it all...
Eurovision Semi-Finals Tuesday, Thursday 8.00pm BBC3
Matt Charlton - 27 April 2022
By the end of this week, we will know which countries are taking part in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday 14 May, after the hotly, or at least comically, contested semi-finals have taken place this week. What we already know, though, is the host city, after leather-clad rockers Maneskin won in Rotterdam last year for Italy.
Turin couldn’t be a better choice for a city that symbolises western Europe and all its faces. It marries the easy-going dolce vita of the Mediterranean regions with the more industrial, cosy, baroque nature of northern Europe – yet somehow still manages to fly under the radar of the tourist hordes. The centre of the city is stunning, almost Venetian, but it’s also called “The Detroit of Italy” for good reason.
Once home to the Fiat headquarters and car factory, it has now come to terms with late 20th-century industrial decline, splicing the edifices of old industry with everything that makes visiting any of the great Italian cities a wonderful experience: the history, the café culture, the unspoilt architecture… and the food, oh, the food! This mix of the industrial and the classical gives Turin a certain decadent feel – something you can hear in the dance music that the Turin scene was so instrumental in bringing to the world in the 1980s (industrial decline usually guarantees a good mechanical beat).
Talking of the old car factory, that’s where I’m staying: the NH Torino Lingotto Congress has taken the beautiful bones of this iconic old auto plant and been appropriately respectful of its original use. We’re not talking car-shaped beds here, thank goodness, but there’s a vintage Lancia in the reception, industrial-chic rooms with auto-themed art, and designer furniture.
There’s also the none-too-small matter of a jogging track on the roof, an architectural landmark that used to be the test track for Fiat. Some movie buffs may recognise it from the original, 1969 version of The Italian Job. And even if you’re not planning on getting your heart rate up, it’s worth a visit for the views alone. T he hotel is situated in the district of Lingotto, an area that eloquently tells the 21st-century story of industrial wasteland turned hipster paradise. A half-hour walk from Pala Alpitour, the local arena where the Eurovision Song Contest will be held, and ten minutes from the Centro Storico historic quarter, this feels like another world to the rest of the city. Here you’ll find the Agnelli art gallery, the old-school Il Coguaro bar, and, of course gastronomic indulgences at the original iteration of now-global deli-restaurant empire Eataly. For fans of music, there’s the cult concert hall Hiroshima Mon Amour that, like my hotel, has set up shop in a re-appropriated building – this time a former school. Once in the centre however, you’re back in the more familiar embrace of a traditional northern Italian city, with boulevards reminiscent of nearby Milan and winding streets and piazzas that recall Florence (which is around three hours away by train).
The city is in turn hugged by the Alps, urban classicism rubbing up against rugged mountains. That means stunning vistas from Turin’s more elevated points, such as Monte dei Cappuccini just the other side of the River Po, the graceful Basilica of Supergra nearby, or the more touristy Mole Antonelliana, a city landmark offering a lift ride to the top. But let’s get to the main event on any Italian trip: the edibles. Northern Italy, but particularly the region of Piedmont – of which Turin is the capital – is famed for the aperitivo. This translates into English as “never having to order a starter”, because as soon as your Negroni cocktail or whiskey sour arrives, so do complementary plates of delectable nibbles. Go cool and contemporary with La Drogheria, a short walk away from Mole Antonelliana; or sip the best Negroni in town at Caffè Torino.
If you’re still not stuffed from your bar snacks, then the options are of course so overwhelming that you could forever be stuck making your mind up. The Mercato Centrale, though more of a food court these days, is a fantastic place to fill up on fresh pasta, pizza and gelato, but for a more intimate and authentic experience, Ristorante Monferrato is a wonderful location to sample the full and filling experience of Piedmontese cuisine (but will still have you asking for a little bit more). Like no other city in Italy, Turin has contradiction in its DNA. It has the capacity to embrace Berlin-like cool – modern, harsh and urban – in one borough, while still preserving the tradition, Renaissance beauty, and aforementioned dolce vita in its heart. And if Eurovision inspires you to come to this city… well, as Cliff Richard would have put it, congratulations.
By the end of this week, we will know which countries are taking part in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday 14 May, after the hotly, or at least comically, contested semi-finals have taken place this week. What we already know, though, is the host city, after leather-clad rockers Maneskin won in Rotterdam last year for Italy.
Turin couldn’t be a better choice for a city that symbolises western Europe and all its faces. It marries the easy-going dolce vita of the Mediterranean regions with the more industrial, cosy, baroque nature of northern Europe – yet somehow still manages to fly under the radar of the tourist hordes. The centre of the city is stunning, almost Venetian, but it’s also called “The Detroit of Italy” for good reason.
Once home to the Fiat headquarters and car factory, it has now come to terms with late 20th-century industrial decline, splicing the edifices of old industry with everything that makes visiting any of the great Italian cities a wonderful experience: the history, the café culture, the unspoilt architecture… and the food, oh, the food! This mix of the industrial and the classical gives Turin a certain decadent feel – something you can hear in the dance music that the Turin scene was so instrumental in bringing to the world in the 1980s (industrial decline usually guarantees a good mechanical beat).
Talking of the old car factory, that’s where I’m staying: the NH Torino Lingotto Congress has taken the beautiful bones of this iconic old auto plant and been appropriately respectful of its original use. We’re not talking car-shaped beds here, thank goodness, but there’s a vintage Lancia in the reception, industrial-chic rooms with auto-themed art, and designer furniture.
There’s also the none-too-small matter of a jogging track on the roof, an architectural landmark that used to be the test track for Fiat. Some movie buffs may recognise it from the original, 1969 version of The Italian Job. And even if you’re not planning on getting your heart rate up, it’s worth a visit for the views alone. T he hotel is situated in the district of Lingotto, an area that eloquently tells the 21st-century story of industrial wasteland turned hipster paradise. A half-hour walk from Pala Alpitour, the local arena where the Eurovision Song Contest will be held, and ten minutes from the Centro Storico historic quarter, this feels like another world to the rest of the city. Here you’ll find the Agnelli art gallery, the old-school Il Coguaro bar, and, of course gastronomic indulgences at the original iteration of now-global deli-restaurant empire Eataly. For fans of music, there’s the cult concert hall Hiroshima Mon Amour that, like my hotel, has set up shop in a re-appropriated building – this time a former school. Once in the centre however, you’re back in the more familiar embrace of a traditional northern Italian city, with boulevards reminiscent of nearby Milan and winding streets and piazzas that recall Florence (which is around three hours away by train).
The city is in turn hugged by the Alps, urban classicism rubbing up against rugged mountains. That means stunning vistas from Turin’s more elevated points, such as Monte dei Cappuccini just the other side of the River Po, the graceful Basilica of Supergra nearby, or the more touristy Mole Antonelliana, a city landmark offering a lift ride to the top. But let’s get to the main event on any Italian trip: the edibles. Northern Italy, but particularly the region of Piedmont – of which Turin is the capital – is famed for the aperitivo. This translates into English as “never having to order a starter”, because as soon as your Negroni cocktail or whiskey sour arrives, so do complementary plates of delectable nibbles. Go cool and contemporary with La Drogheria, a short walk away from Mole Antonelliana; or sip the best Negroni in town at Caffè Torino.
If you’re still not stuffed from your bar snacks, then the options are of course so overwhelming that you could forever be stuck making your mind up. The Mercato Centrale, though more of a food court these days, is a fantastic place to fill up on fresh pasta, pizza and gelato, but for a more intimate and authentic experience, Ristorante Monferrato is a wonderful location to sample the full and filling experience of Piedmontese cuisine (but will still have you asking for a little bit more). Like no other city in Italy, Turin has contradiction in its DNA. It has the capacity to embrace Berlin-like cool – modern, harsh and urban – in one borough, while still preserving the tradition, Renaissance beauty, and aforementioned dolce vita in its heart. And if Eurovision inspires you to come to this city… well, as Cliff Richard would have put it, congratulations.
MATT CHARLTON