The Castello del Valentino stands on the left bank of the Po in the middle of Turin, in a park where students lie about on the grass and rowing crews slide past on the river. It looks like a French château, with pitched grey roofs, corner towers and a courtyard open to the water, and that is no accident. It was built for the dukes of Savoy and transformed in the seventeenth century by Christine of France, widow of Duke Victor Amadeus I, who wanted something of home in her adopted capital. Later it became a school of engineering and then a faculty of architecture, which gives the courtyard a pleasant, slightly scruffy academic life.
The palace is part of a ring of Savoy residences around Turin that together form a World Heritage listing, and you can happily spend a day moving between them. The nearby Parco del Valentino has a reconstructed medieval village with a castle built for an exhibition in 1884, and a botanical garden. On warm evenings the riverbank fills with people drinking aperitivo and listening to music.
For riders, Turin is a city to arrive in carefully. The centre has a restricted traffic zone, the ZTL, where cameras fine vehicles that enter without permission, and motorbikes are not always exempt. Park outside it and walk or use the tram. The wide avenues around the Valentino are handsome, and the tree-lined roads along the river are a pleasure early on a Sunday. In the hills across the Po, a road climbs toward the Basilica of Superga with views over the whole city and the Alpine arc, a good riding reward after the grid of the town.
Fuel and food are no problem in a city of this size. Turin invented the chocolate-and-hazelnut spread and the bicerin, a layered coffee, chocolate and cream drink served in small glasses in the old cafes. Pick spring or autumn: summer is hot and heavy, and winter fog can hide the mountains. The Alps, when they appear, are a remarkable backdrop.