Turin ("Torino" in Italian) is a major industrial city in the shadow of the Alps. This one-time capital of the Duchy of Savoy is the leading city of Italy’s Piedmont region. It is a place noted for its radical political and cultural traditions. You’ll find baroque architecture, lavish street markets and enough designer shops to empty your wallet. Turin is fun, but also edgy and sometimes challenging. But it’s a good introduction to Italy, not least because the central area is compact and very walkable.

Rome is about four-and-a-half hours away by high-speed train. Paris is closer to six. The sunshine coast of Liguria is easy to reach with regular direct trains from Turin to Savona and Genoa (in each case taking about two hours). Frequent trains to Milan take less than an hour. Florence is just three hours away. There are also direct trains to Verona, Venice and Trieste - with, latterly, a big upgrade in the quality of trains serving this major route to north-east Italy.

There’s a useful network of local routes from Turin into the surrounding region – eg. to Susa, Cuneo and Aosta. Travellers from London can easily reach Turin within a day. The journey from London to Turin via Paris takes under ten hours.

The main station in Turin is called Turin Porta Nuova. It’s just a short walk south of the city centre. While that is the station used by most trains, there are important exceptions. The TGV services to Paris, for example, stop at Turin Porta Susa. It is just three stops on the metro line between the two stations. Note that the high-speed trains to Milan and beyond, whether operated by NTV Italo or by Trenitalia, all stop at both Porta Nuova and Porta Susa.