Turin

Huge permanent collection of 19th and 20th century art.

The Mole, Turin's landmark building built in 1888, was intended as a synagogue but the size and cost got out of hand and the Jewish community never used it. The 167.5-metre tower is the highest work of masonry in Europe and you can ride a lift to the cupola at the top. Within it, the National Cinema Museum is a vast exhibition space spiralling up five floors. The themes of the floors are the archaeology of cinema, the video camera, a collection of cinema posters, video installations (with side rooms screening clips), and the Great Temple where you recline in comfy red chairs and watch — or is it worship? — Italian film classics projected on giant screens overhead. Artefacts include magic lanterns, optical illusions, photographs, drawings, models, props and costumes, such as the original cape worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman in 1978.

The collection houses over 170 vehicles, from 18th-century carriages to Formula 1 racers, and lots of gorgeous red sports cars.

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) was convinced that criminality was inherited, little influenced by environment and that criminals could be distinguished by their ugly atavistic features. It therefore followed that any ethnic group that didn't fit Italian concepts of beauty was inferior and should be subjugated. And women should be subjugated by men, as their much lower rate of criminal offending proved that, um, well anyway because they should. When Lombroso met Tolstoy, he rather spoiled the occasion by trying to measure Tolstoy's skull for signs of Slav atavism. His theories greatly suited the far right in Europe but were discredited after the fall of Mussolini. This museum displays his dingbat collection, but perhaps his legacy best lives on in the portrayal of film baddies.

History of alpine mountaineering.

Spooky museum of prisons and punishments. Visit by guided tour; booking is recommended, and essential for the descent into the air raid shelter.

This museum houses art from Kandahar, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. The third floor shows Buddhist and Tibetan culture. The fourth floor is Islamic and Arabian, mainly bronzes, ceramics and tiles.

The original Sindone or Turin Shroud is in safekeeping in the Cathedral and rarely displayed. This small museum displays a copy and studies the Shroud. It's a remarkable object whatever it is, a 4.4 x 1.1 m winding sheet charred by fire and appearing to bear the likeness of a man, matching the Gospel description of the crucifixion of Jesus. Multiple tests have produced contradictory results, or at least contradictory interpretations. It's only reliably known to have existed since 1390 when it was denounced as a forgery, and radio-carbon dating matches that. But no deliberate attempt to reproduce it has managed to capture all its qualities, especially the 3D effect of its photo negative, and neither natural nor artificial processes convincingly explain it. So just look and wonder.

Baroque bling palace, visit by guided tour. Its last private owner Carlo Tancredi Falletti di Barolo served Napoleon then worked tirelessly for relief of the poor; his palace then became an opera house.

In 1706 the French besieged Turin for four months as part of the War of Spanish Succession, which embroiled all major European powers and their colonies. The defending Savoyards had dug 15 km of counter-sapping tunnels, to prevent the French burrowing in. That meant the French could only attack ineffectively from a distance. Pietro Micca sacrificed himself in detonating a tunnel that they were breaking into; a few days later the siege was broken by arriving reinforcements. Nine km of preserved galleries can be visited.

Striking modern building, maybe an orbiter's solar power module? - perched atop the Lingotti Centre. It houses the Agnelli's private art collection, with many big names represented.

All about coffee and the Lavazza brand, in a former coffee factory.

Only open for temporary exhibitions, but with a small permanent display of the work of Ettore Fico (1917-2004).

Art exhibition gallery in a former automobile factory and outdoor sculpture park.

Science museum, child-oriented, limited English signage.

Large elegant cathedral dating from late 15th century, enlarged in the 17th to create the Chapel for the Shroud of Turin. However this chapel (rebuilt after a fire in 1997) is nowadays accessed as part of a tour of Palazzo Reale and can't be seen from the Cathedral; visit the nearby Sindone Museum to see a copy of the Shroud.

A jewel of baroque architecture and sacred art built from 1680 by businessmen anxious to sanctify their dealings - they were, let's stress, "The Pious Congregation of Bankers, Shopkeepers and Merchants of Turin." One theme of the decor is the Magi, bearing the trade valuables without which the Christian church couldn't exist. The chapel was created within Chiesa dei Santi Martiri, a 16th-century Jesuit church. Its best-known artefact is the "calendario perpetuo" made by Giovanni Amedeo Plana in 1831. This predicts lunar phases, tides, days of the week and Christian holy days for 4000 years from Year Zero (1 BC in the Gregorian calendar); thereafter it's askew as it misses an extra leap-day tweak. It ranks among the world's earliest computers, though pipped by Babbage's "difference engine" of 1822.

A late-Renaissance-style church on a hill overlooking the River Po. It was built 1583 to 1656 for the Capuchin Friars; the delay was through plague and the occasional war. A miracle supposedly occurred in 1640 during the French assault on Turin, when troops seizing the church were repulsed by a sheet of holy flame from the tabernacle. They slew all the defenders anyhow, no doubt in a faith-affirming sort of way. Cannonballs stuck in the walls recall the assaults of 1706 and 1799.

Palladian church built 1865-68, originally as part of a care facility for poor and delinquent boys founded by Don Bosco (1815-88). He himself is buried here, along with 6000 bits and pieces of saints.

Neo-gothic church of 1890.

This church was built in the 1730s for a Carmelite convent.

A church and Benedictine monastery may have stood here since the 5th century. Most of it is from 1680 to 1740, an over-the-top profusion of baroque.

This church was built from 1634 by Guarino Guarini to a complex baroque design, where square basilica plan and Grecian cross segues into circular, octagonal and elliptical forms. This creates a striking light-play, especially in the dome, which Guarini might not be pleased to know is dubbed faccia del diavolo, the face of the devil.

A neo-classical miniature pantheon at the far end of Vittorio Emanuele I bridge, closing off the view down Via Po. It was built to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon and return of the Savoy monarchy in 1814, but only completed in 1831.

Rosa Vercellana (1833-1885) became the mistress of the future Victor Emmanuel II and had two children by him before she was 16. She was made a countess when his legitimate wife and queen died in 1855, and in 1869 when the king thought he himself might die, he hurriedly married Rosa. It was a morganatic marriage, so it conferred no crown or right of succession on her or her children. He survived to do the same thing over in 1877, likewise morganatic, then died. His Savoy dynasty wouldn't let this upstart floozie be buried next to him, so here lies La Bela. The neoclassical building was handed over to the city in 1970 but vandalised and fell derelict; it was restored in 2005 and now houses a public library.

Small collection and somewhat run down.

Built as a royal hunting lodge from 1675, this grew and grew into a humonguous bling palace, trying to outshine Versailles. It became a barracks and was knocked about in Napoleonic times, remaining military until the 1930s, then the vandals set about it. Restoration was piecemeal until 1996, then a ten-year project brought it back to its former baroque opulence. Highlights include the Salone di Diana, the Galleria Grande, the chapel of Sant’Uberto and the Scuderie (stables). The Gardens are a modern re-imagining. The palace was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.

The "hunting lodge" grew into such a vast palace that what was needed was a new hunting lodge. However, King Victor Emmanuel II needed somewhere to ensconce his mistress La Bela Rosin, so this new lodge in turn became so big and blinged up that . . . life can be really tough when you're a plutocrat monarch. Wild boar, deer and rare breeds of horse roam the park, which has multiple access points. In the 20th century it acquired a golf course and a motor-racing track.

This hilltop basilica was built in thanksgiving for the 1706 defeat of the French at Turin. Often incorrectly called a cathedral, it's in sort-of-classical-with-baroque style, and houses the tombs of many nobles of the House of Savoy. Superga hill derives its name from Serrapergia meaning "mountain between the hills". Nearby is a monument to the air crash of 1949, which wiped out Torino FC. Get here by car, bus, rack-railway, or the hiking trails, but the approach road is narrow with no sidewalk so it is not safe for walking.

Two shows midweek and three at weekends, only in Italian.

A royal palace and gardens on a hill east edge of the city. It's modest by Savoyard standards but plush with Chinese and Baroque interiors. This reflects the era of Anne Marie d'Orléans, in residence from 1692. Next to the Villa, the Queen's vineyard has been productive since the 1600s, and its "Freisa di Chieri DOC - Villa della Regina" red wine is on sale here.

This castle was built as a fortress by Thomas I of Savoy, but enlarged into a pleasure palace in the mid-15th century. From the 19th century it was especially used by queen mothers and princesses. Today it houses the Carabinieri, though the castle and its apartments can be visited. Reservation required.

Royal hunting lodge built from 1729, and like Veneria Reale its embellishments then got out of hand to create something a Disney princess would swoon over, grand halls and galleries and salons with putti and nymphs in industrial quantities. It houses a huge collection of Piedmontese furniture in its Rococo interiors. Outside is the Parco naturale, the hunting park and gardens, but Fritz the resident elephant has long gone.

Spacious zoo exhibiting animals from around the world.

The hilltop castle was built around 900 AD but from the 17th century had so many incomplete extensions, abandoned or wrecked by the French, that owners and architects risked being driven mad. One who did go mad was King Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732), who horrified noble society by publicly marrying his mistress here; he was deposed and incarcerated within the castle to stop him declaring war on Milan or Poland or heaven knows where. The building later became a barracks but fell derelict until restored in the 1980s. It's now a museum of contemporary art.

The city opera house is active Oct-June. It was opened in 1740 but burned down in 1936. Reconstruction took until 1973, with a modern building behind the original facade, seating 1500.

The city's oldest and premier theatre, opened in 1753. It was wrecked by fire in 1786 but swiftly rebuilt to the original plan, and from 1936 to 1973 it was the opera house during Teatro Regio's lengthy closure.

A modern concert hall seating 1500.

"Juve", founded in 1897, play soccer in Serie A, Italy's top tier, and have almost never been out of the top flight. Allianz Stadium, capacity 41,000, has a club museum.

"Toro" also play in Serie A. The original club was founded in 1906 and dominated until 1949, when team and staff died in the Superga air crash. They had mixed fortunes thereafter and went bust in 2005, so this is a phoenix club. The stadium, capacity 28,000, was built in the 1930s and renovated for the 2006 Winter Olympics, and for some obscure reason is no longer named for Benito Mussolini.