A budget family guide to Turin, Italy

Standing in front of the Roman gates

The first overnight stop on our Interrail trip, leaving London was Turin in Italy as we wanted to make as much ground travel-wise on the first day as possible and felt London to Turin via Paris was more than doable. We had a rather eventful journey after leaving Paris with a train in front of us breaking down inside one of Europe's longest tunnels, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel, which left us stuck at Modane train station in the Alps, for over 3 hrs, while they rescued the train inside the tunnel.

Despite the delay, the staff were excellent throughout and we were given food and drink while we waited although this did result in getting into Turin at around midnight with two overtired children but we were safe and quickly caught a taxi the travel hostel. 

Waking up in Turin the next day is really when our European adventure began, we had arrived at our first destination, ready to explore. We would be heading to the coast the next day so wanted to make as much of our only full day in Turin as we could although of course within the small budget we had, which throughout our trip meant focusing on things to do for free with the odd paid attraction we felt worth it, street food and soaking up the culture. 

Our accommodation Combo Turino, a very hip and cool backpacker which offers great private rooms for families, was within easy walking distance of the old town and after breakfast, we headed straight to Porta Palatina which was less than 2mins away. 

Our room at Combo Turino Hostel

Porta Palatina 

The Palatine Gate is an impressive Roman city gate and is one of the world's best-preserved 1st-century BC Roman gateways and is completely free to explore and I imagine a lot of locals enjoy picnics on the grass, under it's red bricks in the summer. There are also two bronze statues depicting Augustus Caesar and Julius Caesar which were placed in the 1930's. While this is not the largest ruin it's still rather breathtaking and worth a visit. 

Piazza Castello

A quick walk on and we found ourselves in the beautiful Piazza Castello, a large and open city square lined with several landmarks, museums and cafes as well as monuments, sculptures and water features. From the Piazza Casello you can also get a great view of the Royal Palace and is well worth a visit for the free photo opportunities found here. 

The Museo Egizio

The kids and I decided together which museum we would pay admission for and The Museo Egizio and Egyptian Museum came out on top, with over 4,000 years of history and archaeology housed within its walls we knew we wouldn't be disappointed. It actually houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world and receives nearly 1 million visitors a year making it highly popular although it really didn't feel crowded in any way and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I would allocate 2-3hrs for this museum as there is simply so much to see and do and you don't want to rush through it.

 The adult ticket was roughly €18 and children under 14yrs are €1, with under 5's free. 

Riecco Focacceria

After a fair amount of walking, we were ready to sit down and try some much-anticipated Italian street food. After we left the museum we stumbled on to Riecco Focacceria down one of the side streets and I always think when you see a place filled with locals you know it's going to be good. It sells an array of focaccia and pizza, you can get beer to go as well, find a seat outside if you're lucky and take in the bustling atmosphere. 

Right opposite Riecco, to the kids delight was a Gelato shop called Grom, so it only made sense to stop off and try some of their delicious flavours before taking in more the city. 

 Italian Job film locations

We had spotted a film location at Piazza Castello but wanted to tick a few more off and made for a fun and free way to explore more of the city. We stopped off at Palazzo Carignano, another beautiful piazza filled with beautiful buildings and statues and also where in the film we see a lot of angry Italians banding on huge oak doors. 

While we could have seen more, we had hoped to get to Borgo Medioevale, a medieval reconstructed village, we felt for our first full day on the continent this was a great start and well-paced for children. I know lots of people bypass Turin for more popular destinations but we really enjoyed our time here, it also was very reasonably priced unlike some of the other cities we visited later on and despite only scratching the surface we would love to come back and would definitely recommend a night or two here.