Wander & Wonder Travel Newsletter

Hey StoryHunter

Everybody goes to Milan.

Hardly anybody goes to Turin, an hour away by train - which is strange, because Turin was Italy's very first capital.

And it still looks the part: royal palaces, enormous squares, old cafés with velvet sofas, and the Alps on the horizon at the end of the streets.

Right now is a good time to go.

It is truffle season in the region Piedmont, and every weekend until 6 December, the white truffle market in Alba - about an hour south - fills the old town with one of the most expensive smells on earth.

Read on to learn about:

🏛️ The synagogue that grew too tall

🍫 The chocolate Napoleon accidentally invented

🏎️ The car factory with a racetrack on the roof

New update: Many more languages 🌍

StoryHunt just became even more accessible around the world! 

The app interface is now available in 10 languages, making it easier than ever to explore, navigate and find your next story.

And the best part? All StoryHunt stories and tours can still be enjoyed in 170+ languages.

So wherever you’re from - or wherever you’re going - you can explore in a language that feels like home.

Destination of the Week

In 1861, Italy became one country - and Turin became its capital.

For centuries the city had been home to one of Europe's oldest royal and noble dynasties, and the Turin was therefore built it to impress.

It was also built to stay dry.

In 1606, a duke ordered arcades around the main square, and the city simply kept going.

Today Turin has 18 kilometres of arcades, and many are joined together - so you can cross most of the centre without ever opening an umbrella.

Follow them down Via Po to the river, and stop at the Museo Egizio on the way: the largest collection of ancient Egypt outside Cairo.

Don't Miss

In 1863, Turin's Jewish community hired an architect to build them a synagogue.

They gave him a budget, and he promised to stick to it.

He did not.

He kept making the building taller.

And taller.

The costs nearly tripled, the work stopped, and in 1876 the community gave up and handed it to the city.

When it was finished in 1889, the Mole Antonelliana stood 167 metres tall - the highest brick building in Europe.

But it never became a synagogue.

Today it is the National Cinema Museum, and a glass lift shoots up through the middle of the vast hall inside - 85 metres in 59 seconds - to a terrace above the rooftops.

Did You Know?

In the early 1800s, Napoleon blocked British ships from trading with Europe.

Cocoa suddenly became very expensive - a problem in a city that had been drinking chocolate since the 1600s.

So Turin's chocolate makers turned to something they had plenty of: hazelnuts.

In 1865, two chocolate makers grounded the nuts into a smooth paste and mixed it with cocoa.

If the taste seems familiar, that is because it is the ancestor of Nutella.

The Trendy Traveler Tip

In the south of the city stands a huge old Fiat factory called Lingotto.

It opened in 1923, and it worked from the bottom up: raw materials went in at street level, moved up through five floors, and finished cars came out at the top.

And on the roof was a racetrack.

A 1.2-kilometre test track with steep banked curves, where new Fiats got their first drive - high above the city.

You may know it from the car chase in The Italian Job.

It closed in 1982, but you can still walk the track and feel the thrill