Next September my husband and I are looking forward to a trip to northern Italy. We're in our early 60's, fairly active. It will be my first time back to Italy in too many years, and his first time there. The focus of the trip is a guided, small-group hiking trip in the Valsesia ( 6 nights/7 days). We'll stay at the same hotel in Alagna and take a different hike each day. It's early, but I like planning, and I do have a couple of questions to ask of this community. Here is our tentative itinerary:

Fly to Milan - spend 3 nights
Meet the hiking tour at Malpensa, catch the tour shuttle to Alagna - 6 nights - hiking tour
Take the train to Alba / The Langhe - 3 nights
Train to Turin - 3 nights
Bus rom Turin to Malpensa airport / stay in hotel near airport -1 night
Fly home

My questions are about after the hike. We generally don't like to change hotels more often than necessary, so at first we were going to just stay in Turin for 5 or 6 nights and do a day trip to The Langhe, but it seems like an area to spend a little more time in. We'd rather not rent a car on this trip, so we're thinking Alba is a good choice as it has decent access by train. I read ( on this forum I believe) that La Favorita ( just outside of Alba) would be a good place to stay - nice views, friendly place, walking distance to town for dinner, etc. We can organize a private winery/sightseeing tour one day, relax another day ( post-hike!), and maybe rent bikes a third day. Does anyone have another suggestion for where it would work to stay without a car? Would anyone suggest Plan A and stay in Turin with a day trip to The Langhe? I can see wanting to return to The Langhe, perhaps in the next couple of years, and spending more time, renting a car, making it to SML, but for now I think we just want to see it and relax post-hike. Does this seem reasonable? My next question is whether 3 days is long enough in Turin? We want to see the car museum, the cinema museum, one of the palaces, eat some good food and enjoy the squares/ walk around. I would appreciate any input and/or suggestions to the proposed itinerary. As we're not completely retired yet, we will have about 2 weeks, more or less, on the ground for this trip. Thanks in advance. Love this forum!

JoanYUL, I love Turin but I think 3 nights would be more than enough for me. Moving bases closer to the heart of the action - like Alba makes sense. We stayed in the very centrally located Locanda Cortiletto d'Alba (a famous restaurant but also offers beautiful accomodation). I know Villa La Favorita is highly regarded (and we almost booked there), but it's probably a 15-20 minute walk into town without a car - just something to be aware of.

You may have seen my detailed trip report from 2024
Northern Italy May 2024 : Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria. However, a car is essential to explore the countryside and glorious villages - so this is worth serious reconsideration. We picked up our rental in Turin, drove around the Langhe (Asti, Alba etc. but La Morra was primary base) and returned the car at Turin before heading to Liguria by train.

How will you move from Alagna Valsesia to Turin?
If it's by public transport, that can easily take half a day or more: https://atapspa.it/wp-content/themes.../orario_50.pdf
If you visit the sanctuary of Varallo, you can add another 2 hrs.

In this case, 3 nights might not be too much at Turin.
Some people can spend more than half a day in the Egypt museum only.
Others visit Palazzo Madama, Royal Palace, Mole Antoniella, Basilica da Superga, Duomo, Galleria Sabauda, Museo del Risorgimento, Villa Regina, Palazzo Carignano, Castello Valentino, Palazzina di Stupinigi...........
All that takes a lot of time

ANUJ: Thank you for your response. Yes, I had read your excellent trip report, but thank you for attaching it here as it's very useful. I appreciate your photos and maps! Something we could possibly consider is renting a car once we get to Alba. I've only rented a car once before in Europe and that was from Girona in Spain to explore the Costa Brava. I found that fine ( although we didn't go to Cadaques on the serpenine road!). How is the driving in The Langhe?

The driving in the Langhe is stress-free with very good roads. I would run a few dummy searches on autoeurope.eu for cars in Alba, where I suspect availability may be more limited than Turin.

I hope maitaitom will also chime in, on this thread.

Thanks ANUJ.

Neckervd: Thank you for your response, and for posting the bus schedule between Alagna and Vercelli as I had not gotten that far yet. A stop in Varollo looks worth considering, but we'll need to weigh it against other priorities. Can anybody who has visited there weigh in on this? I'm aware that it will take several hours to go from Alagna Valsesia to Alba, or even Turin. We're willing to accept that - sometimes on a trip there are those "travel days." Alternately, we could take the shuttle back to Malpensa, then bus to Turin, but it's backtracking and doesn't seem to gain that much time.

An alternate itinerary could be to visit Turin and The Langhe BEFORE the hike. It would look like this:
Fly to Malpensa, take a bus directly to Turin, then train to Alba, stay 3 or 4 nights
Train to Turin - stay 3 nights
Train to Milan - stay 2 or 3 nights
Catch the hike shuttle at Malpensa, go to Alagna for hike, 6 nights
Take the shuttle back to Malpensa ( morning departure), stay near the airport or perhaps in Varese or Arona 1 night
Fly home

That's 17 nights - stretching it but doable. It puts us in Turin/The Langhe at the end of August as opposed to September ( hike is Sept 1 - 7). I like the idea of September there better, but I'm wondering if this alternate itinerary is worth considering? Does it seem more efficient?

Regarding Turin, yes, the Museo Egizio is something we're interested in too! We might not see everything we want in Turin, but as I mentioned above, I think we'll be back, and Turin is easy to get to.

Thanks for your input, and I'd welcome any more

May be you can ask the driver of the Alagna - MXP shuttle, to deposit you at the bus station of either Varallo or Borgosesia.
You could then change to a Novara bound bus or - if you are lucky - to one of the few Turin bound buses:
novaravaralloarsco.pdf
varallotorinoarsco.pdf

As to the visit of the sanctuary of Varalllo, it really depends on your preferences.
Nobody can decide for you.

Thank you neckervd.

One more question - if we do opt to take the bus/train to Turin post hike, do you know if the ride is scenic? The slowness of it would suggest so, in which case really wouldn’t mind the ride for a few hours.

The Sesia Valley road is scenic from Alagna up to Romagnano/Gattinara.
Then the area gets completely flat (rice fields) with nice views to the Alps (Northern side) if the weather is fine.
If you pass through Novara, you will see nothing of the rice fields, etc., but I wouldn't say that the itinerary is ugly: a lot of nature, towns and villages along the railway line, but not along the motorway.

The most scenic way by far would go by cableway via Passo Salati to Gressoney (runs usually until mid September) and then by bus to Pont St-Martin (bus change) - Ivrea (change to train) - Turin.
There might be some luggage problems, however.

Great info to have neckervd, and thanks for posting the beautiful photo!

Hello all. Now that we have our exact dates and have booked our flight, we've decided that following our hike in the Valsesia next September we'll go to the lakes for 4 days. Given the time factor, there isn't really time to go to both Turin and Alba, and a couple of the lakes are actually closer. It would make sense to save Turin/The Langhe for another trip where the wine area and perhaps some cycling there could be the focus. Thanks all for your input about Turin and The Langhe - I've saved it for the next trip to Italy in the next year or so (hopefully). Now I have questions about the lakes which I'll post in another thread.