August in Turin

Before the 2008 economical crisis Turin, just like any other Italian city looked deserted, especially on August 15 or Ferragosto!

To get a better idea of what this all Italian Mid-August phenomenon is like, and especially if you love the Italian culture and language, we invite you all to watch The Mid-August Lunch:

Even though this movie is set in Rome, we celebrate August 15th out of town all over the boot!

As the Italians' buying power dropped due to the crisis, August in Turin has been different after 2008, more downtown shops are open, yet we are far from any tourist crowd you might imagine. Moreover, the weather has been rather bizarre and we had cold Augusts and never sultry ones as per southern Italian stereotype. Definitely, August 2018 will pass into history as an exceptionally sultry one, but helas, the climate is changing here too and in 2017, Balbiano harvested the Villa della Regina Freisa a month earlier, around August 20th for the first time in over one century...

So, here are 5 cool things to do in Turin in August, when you can take full advantage of a very quiet city and all its perks!

• Prepare a picnic

Go to the Porta Palazzo market and have fun buying some of all the good produce and local cheeses you see. You can also buy bread and sweets besides wine!

We remind you that any neighborhood in Turin has a daily market but the Porta Palazzo one is the largest outdoor market in Europe!

Enjoy your pic-nic in the Venaria Reale park (more below) or in the Valentino Park.

• Buy ramassin!

if you can't visit a market, go to a grocery store and buy these tiny delicious plums! They are native of Piedmont and are available only in July and August!

• get some of Piedmont wines

to enjoy chilled: Favorita, Erbaluce, Malvasia, Moscato, Freisa, or Bonarda a quite unique red wine

• Visit the Royal Palace of Venaria

this is our tiny Versailles, you can easily each it with the double decker sight-seeing bus. There is a huge park with many areas in the shade that make it a great place for your pic-nic or you can eat on the main street just outside the royal palace

• Have dinner in the Roman lanes

Enjoy the local specialties sitting down at a restaurant table in a traffic free lane alfresco, cuddled by the sweet breeze of the early evening, just like the locals do.

These lanes and nearby piazzas at both sides of Via Garibaldi are like an extension of our homes: a big living-room where you can let go of all your worries and feel that after all, Turin too is your oyster.

Don't just stop at the reviews you read online!
Take the time to personally check out the bistros, restaurants, bars, pubs, small joints in Piazza Emanuele Filiberto, Piazza IV Marzo and in Galleria Umberto I, at least 3 different places will intrigue you and you will wonder why you have to leave before trying them all!

Just remember that for a full vidaroyal experience you need to live Turin through our eyes!

... release your senses and body: we offer yoga privates too 😜