Piemonte Italia

Torino markets

Torino has more than 40 local markets. They are segments of a soul that, over time, has aggregated many small markets attracting tourists, students, the lady fond of vintage, and those who can only afford second-hand clothing. Here is, following the calendar, a map for discovering them.

1st Sunday of the month
In front of the Town Hall, piazza Palazzo di Città turns into an ”oasis” of typical products from the Piedmontese countryside, such as wine, cold meats, bread and pasta, cheeses, honey, milk, and fruit. There are also fair trade products and hand-crafted wood and iron objects. A bit further away, on via Cesare Battisti, in the part between via Roma and piazza Carlo Alberto, craftwork enthusiasts can buy leather, glass, wood, cane, iron, hard stone, crystal, and paper hand-crafted articles. On the same day, head for the Po river and you'll feel like being in Paris. The largest square in Europe, piazza Vittorio Veneto, turns into a “marché aux puces”. A hundred of stall propose to collectors knickknack of all sorts, from gifts and fancy goods and furniture, to prints and clothing at more than affordable prices. Under piazza Carlo Felice colonnades, between a historic coffee place and another, it is possible to browse among the stalls looking for prints and old books, used volumes, postcards, comics, photographs, stamps.

2nd Sunday of the month
The Balôn, which is very popular also with people from other regions, the second Sunday of the month turns into the Gran Balôn attracting many Italian and foreign “brocanteurs”. The 250 stalls offer articles for every pocket, such as furniture, paintings and prints, fabrics, period toys, vinyl and musical instruments, and much more. And those who happen to be strolling around Torino can also venture all the way to piazza Statuto, where other stalls have on offer a selection of the most important Piedmontese wines "explained" by their producers with the possibility of tasting them. Simultaneously, in the historic piazzetta Carlo Alberto, vintage and modern antique collectors can have a great time looking for items of clothing and objects strictly dating back between thirties and the eighties.

3rd Sunday of the month
Piazza Madama Cristina, the heart of San Salvario which is the most multiethnic part of the town, is a showcase for wines, cold meats, regional bread and pasta, cheeses, honey and fruit, whereas in the central piazza Palazzo di Città, stalls propose products that have obtained the excellence certification from the Regione Piemonte. On the Balconata of via San Donato, the “Fiera del Viale Alberato” (Fair of the Tree-line Avenue) takes place, where 70 stalls propose second-hand objects and creative handcrafts. At the foot of the hill in the Gran Madre borough, which is a small rive gauche on the banks of the Po river, it possible to find items of clothing, bijouterie, gifts and fancy goods, and musical instruments, all strictly vintage.

4th Sunday of the month
From the centre to the beginning of the outskirts. On via Di Nanni, which is the heart of the San Paolo borough and until the seventies was the working class district of the town, more than ninety stalls offer hand-crafted products. In piazza Abba, in the Barriera di Milano district, the fourth Sunday of the month is for collectors an opportunity to hunt for bargains rummaging between paintings, miniatures, prints, furniture, period objects, jewels, and old watches. For the gourmands instead, at Cit Turin, the liberty district which was dear to Dario Argento, the historic piazza Benefica is a feast for the eyes: vegetables, honey, cheeses, wines, flours, mushrooms, eggs, and flowers, of course, all “made in Piedmont”.