Turin Stocking Stuffers

Happy Saint Lucy's Day to all those who celebrate December 13th, including our very own Lucia of Turinepi!!

Besides Scandinavia and St Lucia, St Lucia's is a festive day in many parts of Italy where she brings the Christmas presents, leaving Santa just some small packages to fill up his stockings.

Originally from Syracuse, Sicily, during the Roman times, Lucia was persecuted and martyrized because she wouldn't renounce her faith. Her relics traveled to many places and because her name means light, her story finally merged with the Winter Solstice and this is how she make it up to Northern Europe where she's represented wearing a crown of candles and bringing light in the 'longest dark day of the year'.

If you can read Italian, enjoy our short story here.

Fiat 500 where the T stands for Torino

In Turin, we don't have any traditional foods for St Lucy's Day so we thought about some stocking stuffers from our city that will make everyone happy!

Most of our recommendations are edible but not all of them will fit a regular Christmas or Befana stocking, thus making them suitable to be gifted separately.

Flavored Piedmont Tajarin 

Tajarin is one of our staple regional 4 first courses or primi piatti. With their 40 egg yolks they are the epitome of our royal culinary tradition, dating back to the dawn of time.

Usually sold, served and eaten fresh, it is also sold dry so it can easily travel overseas. You can find it in its plain version, or with Barolo wine DOCG, with our Piedmont white truffles or our porcini mushrooms.

Naturally a regal dish, with just 3 minutes of boiling time and melted butter, it will turn every table into our average Turin feast!

Jars

Here in Turin and Piedmont you can choose among many delicious jars of local products, like:

• Zabajone aka the Italian eggnog

Galup in the Piedmontese dialect means delectable

Zabajone aka the Turin eggnog was invented in Turin in the late 16th century by St Pasquale de Baylon - patron saint of chefs and cooks

One of Turin and Piedmont winter hot drinks, it can be savored warm in a cup, just like eggnog or denser on a panettone or cake slice. Italians usually have it as dessert or mid-afternoon snack. 

This is a seasonal product available only when temps drop: mid-November to the end of February.

You can also easily make it at home with our very own Piedmont Moscato D'Asti DOCG one of our most famous bubbly wines in the world - recipe here.

• White Truffles with robiola goat cheese

In short: heaven in a jar as white truffles are the diamonds of the table and our Piedmont produced robiola cheeses are all from very tiny local productions and made with the milk of goats who are protected and can't be exploited.

In Piedmont, we highly value the nutritional content of all our regionally produced foods and deeply care for the whole production process. As author Barbara Boyle says: "farm animals in Piedmont live a very happy life" this is how we get our extra lean beef too.

• Porcini mushrooms 

Porcini mushrooms are the kings of our royal Piedmont cuisine and we enjoy them in many fashions and in many dishes from pasta to risotto, meats and even fish. Naturally, if you have to travel, you'll want them preserved in oil and one of these huge jars will definitely make for a great present to any foodie!

• Bagna Cauda aka THE Piedmont convivial specialty

Rich in garlic, our Piedmont 'hot bath' or bagna cauda is an anchovy-based and butter dip where you dunk your crudités into. You serve it warm in a common heated container - like fondue, placed at the center of your table where everyone will easily dunk their carrot or celery stick or artichoke leaf.

Yes, you can also use it as a spread and you will definitely need to pair it with a nice Piedmont wine that deserves its own nice wooden box under the Christmas tree.

Gianduiotti box

Nobody can resist a royally wrapped-in-gold rich chocolate and this is why since the 1800s - when hazelnuts were first blended with cocoa powder to elegantly defy the Napoleonic blockade - our Piedmont staple chocolates look like precious gold nuggets.

All around Piedmont and especially in Turin, our Holiday packages must include a chocolate box! Nowadays, the foil color can change to reveal the % of cocoa powder and the kind of blend.

You can also find sealed boxes with an assortment of locally made pralines, only gianduiotti, only cremino chocolates or for a truly Turin flavor: a blend of these last two.

You can find some at our TRN Turin Airport too. 

Candies

Candies are probably the easiest thing to travel with because they are small and you only have to worry about keeping them below 22C / 71.6F. They don't break and can be purchased in tiny boxes, collectible tins of different sizes - small ones too, perfect for a stocking; or even lose at any herbal shop.

In Turin we have a long standing candy-making tradition and a love for essential oils, natural colors and ingredients. Gummy, slow melting, mint - licorice - violet, sugar based, or hard candies will elate even the Grinch!

Anything by Leone will do, including their chocolate spread tube!

Some are available at TRN Turin Airport too.

 

A Charm from Turin

artisan charms from Turin with Mole Antonelliana, Fiat 500, our Turin's bull

Everyone will love a tiny silver or gold, artisan made charm from Turin with our city symbol building: Mole Antonelliana hosting the National Cinema Museum, a tiny version of our ever iconic Fiat 500 and our Turin bull or il toro: where the Torino's name got its origin, a precious souvenir of our bull fountains, and il Torino FC known as 'il Toro' the historical soccer team of Turin (currently we have to city teams, being Juventus FC or Juve, the other one)!

These charms can be worn as a pendant or on a bracelet, as a cellphone / bag / keyring charm or kept in your Native American-like medicine bag too! 

In the picture above you can also see a dome shaped charm: it is the Superga Basilica where the Savoy princes and princesses are buried and also the name of the hill where this Basilica was built on and where il Grande Torino or the youngest and strongest Torino FC team crashed in 1949.

A Renaissance Cologne since 1510!!

Turin is studded with MANY royal pharmacies, they all have their own production of spirits, skincare and OTC drugs. The oldest one is Farmacia della Consolata officially registered in 1640 but already active since 1510 when they started producing this magic cologne!

Valentina shared the story of their top 2 out of 280 (!!) historical products still made following the recipes registered in the 1800s and adapted to our days' taste and needs:

Whether acting as Saint Lucy, Santa or la Befana, you can be sure you'll always find that unique something 🎁 here in Turin for  all your Holiday shopping and special occasions 🎊

From our family to yours we wish you a very Happy Holiday Season and hope to see you right here in Turin 👑or online in 2026 🎇 

 

Turin's Royal Palace and its 'little Christmas wood' in the King's square

E-mail Lucia: turinepi@gmail.com 

for your private tours, experiences, private classes, consulting and relocation

Amici, Turin will amaze you 💃

Whiskey risotto

We officially made it to the fall 🌰 and the Holiday season ✨ and as it is customary, we are sharing one of our risottos!

This one will make many people happy as it checks many boxes: gluten free, vegetarian and possibly vegan too, alcohol free so the kids and people on meds can enjoy it too 😋It can also be easily tweaked to fit your personal taste and the ingredients you have access to wherever you are based! So, feel free to modify accordingly if none of our suggestions work out for you.

in November the artichoke season starts in Piedmont: our risotto 

Italian gifts

Fall is really the new year in Italy as people get back in town, schools resume and with them all the Italian rites: dinners out, Sunday lunches at nonni's or parents', parties and presents.

Halloween's vibes in Turin

Italian (in)tangible identities

 Italians are renowned for being very friendly and welcoming people but are they really? 

at Pepino's enjoying a pinguino!

Italian geography

Geography inspires travels, daydreams by giving many clues about the people who live in far and away lands. And Italian geography is an integral part of Italian culture and language because as all students of Italian 101 learn within the first week of class: the Italian spelling is done with the Italian cities. And all native Italians know all the Italian cities, where they are located and their wider regions.

People educated in Italian schools learn their own geography in elementary and middle school and like most Europeans, they know the major facts about the 20 regions that make up the boot. However, many non-Europeans who plan to visit or move to Italy judge Italian geography useless and most even refuse to learn the few Italian cities whose first letter make up their full name.

Unfortunately, when you can't spell your name with Italian cities, you can't book or make any reservations and Italians have no clue about non-Italian sounds, even more so when you have a non-Italian spelling...

One extra reason to savor Italian geography is that it comes with its diverse history, costumes, dialects, specific words, expressions and use of the grammar typical of only specific areas.

In fact, despite the stereotypes: Italy isn't a monoculture and the Italian friendliness you perceive is in most cases just a façade. This is even truer in business situations like long term renting, buying properties and doing business.

Therefore be aware of any Italian language class that doesn't teach the alphabet with the names of the Italian cities because you'll be missing a useful part and won't be able to spell your name properly. Plus, you'll be missing all the Italian culture bits that come with it...

Take private Italian classes with us: turinepi@gmail.com

Turin time

There are always interesting things to know about Turin before making it over here, even only to soften your landing, culturally speaking. Whether Turin is your 1st Italian destination or your 20th, most things will be newer to you than you had expected. Naturally, this applies to native Italians too because as you may already know: Italy is a tiny and very diverse boot made up of 20 very distinct regions.

During our cross cultural workshops and relocation sessions, we always explain how the concept of one whole monocultural Italy has never existed. Thus the lack of a national sense in favor of the more common 'campanilismo' or affectionate attachment to our own little village church belltower. 

Words and their origins always give us nice insights on the culture of the language they belong to and campanile is the church belltower where the bell rings every 15 minutes to mark the time and remind us where we are in our day. Yet, paraphrasing Kant, time and space are both universal and subjective and especially time is a very fluid dimension here in the boot.

Unlike what you see represented by most Non-Italian tv and cinema productions, and even if you have already visited other more touristy Italian places, once you are in Turin, you'll soon find out for yourself how what easily works out in Rome and Sicily doesn't necessarily work up in Northern Italy, especially here in the Northwest.

wandering in Turin

In the blink of an eye, May is almost gone, as well as the 37th International Book Fair of Turin where 'Lucia of Turinepi' was invited as a guest speaker by Dr Naila Clerici, the Italian expert about the Native Americans, First Nations and Aboriginal People of North America. In 2026 the Turin Book Fair will be on May 14-18.

If you can read and understand Italian, this is the perfect event for you because you'lI find all the Italian publishing houses, including the indie ones, plus tons of guests, presentations, talks and events within the book fair AND many more all around Turin. So, you'll get to hear many authors and will also have the possibility to buy many Italian books, often, those you don't usually find in bookshops.

Photo by Mr B. Menegatti: Dr Naila Clerici, Lucia Hannau and Maura Valleri