Just back from Torino a few weeks ago. The ChocoPass did NOT entitle you to free public transport. The Torino Museum card covered transport, as well as all museums in Torino and the surrounding provinces, the Mole Antonella elevator, the tramway to Superga on the hillside overlooking town, a short boat ride on the Po River, parking, and PLUS a discount on the ChocoPass.

our example:

We got 72-hour Torino Museum cards for 18 euros each. They do go by the actual hours, so with careful planning 72 hours can be used for parts of four different days.

We purchased 48-hour ChocoPasses, again based on actual hours so we spread use over three days. The cost would nromally be 15 euros each for 48 hours, but our cost was 12 euros, a 3 euro discount with our Torino cards.

The ChocoPass booklets give you an idea about what each chocolatier will offer you. Usually it was 3-5 individual chocolates, sometinmes you chose, sometimes they just gave them to you. One palce gave us a small gelato. Another gave us that great thick hot chocolate. Our last stop was at the famous Al Bicerin, where we had a generous slice of cake topped with plenty of whipped cream and a piece of dar chocolate on top. The ChocoPass booklet itself was very handy--it had a good, sturdy map that folded easily into the back cover which helped with finding our way around town.

Another great stop in Torino--the Egyptian Museum.

This info. has been great! We will be in Piedmont for 5 nights arriving this Sat. (staying with Diana in Acqui Terme!!)

Planning a daytrip to Torino, thanks for all the detailed info. on museums and chocopass. I did look up the Egyptian Museum and National Cinema Museum and for those of you doing Torino in a daytrip just note that they are both closed on Mondays.

Ellenem, thanks for the update on Choco-pass, once upon a while it did include transport like to Torino-pass, I suppose they changed it after the Olympics. I have never used them, but as said have many unused coupons from my guests, time dated alas.

However my comment would now be that without the travel, I wouldn't get a choco-pass, its really a tourist gimmick, get a Torino pass, the list of chocolatiers are readilt available on-line at turimotorino.org or from any tourist info point, and unless you are a dedicated choco-hound, I defy anyone to get the full value of all the coupons, but its a nice souvenir to bring home!

Sweet dreams!

I assure you we got the full value of the ChocoPass!

A few more facts about our trip. We had a lovely lunch in Torino at Solferino, on the Piazza Solferino. It was one of the few restaurants open on Sunday when we arrived and we enjoyed it very much. The chocolate shop. Stratta, on Piazza San Carlo is not to be missed. I would have liked to visit the Egyptian Museum if we had more time in Torino.

Some of the other towns we visited included Cherasco, which was cute but we arrived at lunch time and everything was very quiet; Santo Stefano Belbo, where the beautiful Relais San Maurizio sits on a mountain-top; Our Lady of Graces, a wildly painted chapel outside of La Morra; Saluzzo, the old town is high and the new town is below.

Outside of Gavi, in Serravalle, are the designer outlets – very crowded on weekends but all of the top Italian designers are there.

question about chocopass: could my partner and i just get ONE choco-pass and share all the goodies?? Sounds like there is way too much for one person and we'd be getting the 24-hour pass to use during a day trip to Torino. Thanks for all the other info as well!

Nessundorma,
Yes, it is a bit off the main drag and certainly is worth a visit. Sometime I wonder how many of the Garibaldi strollers are missing this gem of a square and the great shop found there. You're absolutely right about the charm in that piazza.

Yes, you can share the pass, though keep in mind that some places might offer you one cup of hot chocolate or one gelato, not an assortment of chocolates. A one-day pass cost 10 euros and had 10 coupons.

You would have to be fast on your feet to use that many coupons in one day. For our two-day pass, each coupon featured one or two chocolate shops, so for some coupons you had to choose to go to one shop versus another. Usually the two shops were near one another or were branches of the same company. We didn't get to use some of our coupons--mostly because those shops were further from the center and not convenient for us.

For your day trip when you plan to do other things, I would probably do as Sampaguita suggests--check the web site and plot the most convenient shops to visit on your own. There are a good number of themwithin 10-15 minutes walk of one another in the center.

Dona-
Thanks for the great trip report. I'm headed to Torino for work/pleasure on my own in 2 weeks. I'm interested in going to the smaller towns surrounding Torino as day trips. Is it necessary to rent a car or can I take the train? Any feedback would be appreciated.. Thanks!

Hi Laya,

I'm not really a good source for the train since I prefer to drive myself around. The whole area is really pretty small - so the towns that I visited from Alba you can visit from Torino, e.g., Alba, Barolo, La Morra, Neive, Santo Stefano Belbo, Cuneo, Monforte d'Alba, etc. In addition, you can head up into the mountains, where the Olympics were held this year, e.g., Bardonecchia.

Dona

If you're interested in towns visited by the Olympics, Bardonecchia is an easy train ride from Turin, through nice countryside once you get a ways out of the city. A nice selection of dining options -- nothing I found spectacular but plenty of good places. Same goes for Pinerolo, which hosted curling.

So nice to see the Monferrato mentioned. We rent a flat near Fontanile (half way between Nizza Monferrato and Aqui Terme) every summer and love the area. So low key and genuine. Nizza is a market town where businesses that support the wine industry are based. It is not a tourist destination and we have never seen another american tourist there, just the occasional German or Swiss. There are, however, some very good restaurants. Due Lanterne is not to be missed! Aqui has been a spa town since roman times and is charming. Many shops and restaurants, and an internet cafe! There are numerous excellent wineries in the area, many of which offer tastings. Don't miss Cascina Garitina; their wines are earning scores of low 90s. Torino is an easy day trip by train: Nizza to Asti, then change for train to Torino. BTW I think it is seriously underrated and well worth a visit. Genova and the coast are an hour and a half or two hour drive away. If you go, try to find time to see the aquarium. This is a great area to visit if you are tired of bumping elbows with hoards of other american tourists, but probably not the best choice if you want to see great art, spectacular churches, or world famous sites.

We will be in Piemonte in September and I am curious about what you used for road maps. We are going to rent a car and would like to visit several of the towns you and others have mentioned, as well as spending a day in Torino. We will be staying just outside of Nizza Monferrato.

Any advice on maps and other information...places to eat, things to see, possible walking or hiking areas...would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and would anyone know if there are places to ballroom/partner dance in Torino?

Thanks!

Nizza in Sept - Lucky You! The truffle market will be on in Aste and the Palio too. The Monferrato map we use is called "Across the Hills of Aqui Terme-Canelli-Nizza Monferrato." It is one of the Wine and Gastromony Routes published by Rhem. One side has a detailed map of the area and the other had lists of places to stay and wineries and restaurants. Available at any tourist office for free, though we got ours from the place we stay - La Granica in Fontanile. We also carry a Euro Cart map of Piemonte published by Studio F.M. B. Bologna. We got ours at Barnes and Noble and it is useful for gross navigating but does not show the smaller local routes. I recommend that you stop at a regional enoteca or local tourist office and grab every map they offer. I do want to add a note about driving in Piemonte - the distances do notlook far, but the roads are winding. Driving from Nizza to say Cuneo takes a long time. Where are you staying near Nizza?

Hi GoingtoItaly,

if you are staying at any of the foreigner-owned B&B's in Piedmont, we are usually very good about providing our guests with maps and good advice on where to go. The tourist information agencies all have maps too, there is a good one "tra colline Acqui T-Canelli-Nizza M" which covers the area between all 3 towns with details of restaurants etc on the back, and Regione Piedmont has a good one of Provincia d'Asti, likewise Alba tourist consorzio has one which covers the whole area from Torino to AcquiT. And Turin has many information points with good city maps thanks to the olympics. For large road maps d'Agostino has maps of Piedmont-Liguria-Val d'Aosta, you can buy at any bookstore in the area.

We will be in Piemonte in September and I am curious about what you used for road maps. We are going to rent a car and would like to visit several of the towns you and others have mentioned, as well as spending a day in Torino. We will be staying just outside of Nizza Monferrato.

The whole are is stacked full of wonderful trattorie, its no wonder the Slow Food Movement was born here in Piedmont. Another good place to eat in Nizza town is La Rotonda restaurant, next to the pool on the road to Asti just going out of town, great food and English speaking waitress, and also don't miss a drink on the bar on Pzza Garibaldi (next to the cinema) owned by a Scottish-Italian family.

And lastly try Sabor Latino on Via Stradella 10 in Turin for Latin dancing.

Enjoy and ask your hots about getting you Palio tickets if you are here on the 3rd Sunday, don't miss the events leading up to the Palio including the 10-day Douja d'Or wine festival. Sadly its a bit early for white truffles, although some restaurants will have them on the menu, best time is November (when Asti has its truffle market).

Wow, equitraveler and sampaguita thank you both so much for your replies! Equii, we will be staying at Cascina Christiana from September 13th thru the 17th, according to the website it is in the hillsdie 2km from Nizza.

Sampaguita, thank you for your information, can you tell me more about the Douja D'or? I will contact the owners of Cascina Christiana and see what they recommend about tickets to the Palio. That is the day we are scheduled to leave Piemonte and drive up to Lago Maggiore but there's no real hurry to get there for a certain time! Is the Palio a day long event? Also, are there accomodations for parking in Asti for the Palio?

Thanks again for all the great information!

Hi Goingtoitaly
Are you renting an apt at Cascina Christiana? If so, let me know and i will send info on finding the supermercato,the bennetts, green grocers, etc in Nizza and Aqui.

Hi equitraveler,

We are renting a room, not an apartment, but I would still be interested in some of that information. It could be fun to check out the local grocers, etc., perhaps we could get some fresh fruit for snacking!

we adored cascina christiana.
hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

can't imagine getting a nicer room anywhere.

i posted here about this place long ago and have never seen anyone else go there.
i am so glad someone else has found it!

p.s. the wine they make there is very good, according to my husband and our travel partners.

we also bought at another nearby winery. i have all this in a posted report, but i doubt i can find it.

do not miss due linterna restaurant mentioned.
excellent.

beware returning at night on theses roads. we got so lost one evening coming back from somewhere.. thought we would never find our place. we were trying to take an apparent "short cut" instead of backtracking to main highway.

bad idea.

The Palio is an all day event, you must not miss te medieval parade which starts at 2pm and winds through the old walled city to the Piazza Alfiero, where the Palio is held. There are 3 heats and the final, but with all the false starts and flag-throwing display in-between heats, the final doesn't finish until around 6.

Maggiore is only a 90 minute drive from Asti on the autostrada, so you could do both, however be warned that parking is not easy in Asti on that day, you will probably have to walk a way to get in, better to park on Cso Allesandria leading towards the correct autostrada exit for a quick getaway.

The Douja is on all week, starts around 6 in the evening and features about 400 wines being poured from Piedmont, Italy and always a guest country, along with guest chefs preparing dinners (must book), learned discussions, jazz bands at night, a great night to come would be the Thursday and watch the Palio di Sbandieratore (flag throwers)in the old medieval Pza San Secondo, a real local event, which has not been doe up for tourists. Long drive home though after Douja d'Or to Nizza and to Peter and Christina's house.