Turin from Albiez: a day out, or the next leg

Turin is two hours from Albiez. That is not widely known, and it changes a stay: the Maurienne is a border valley, and the first major Italian city sits on the other side of the massif rather than at the end of a journey. Many of our guests give it a day mid-stay; others make Albiez their first stop and carry on into Italy.

Three ways to get there

By train, from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne

The most comfortable option, and the most underrated. 134 km, 1 hr 56 min, no change. The Paris-Milan trains run by SNCF and Trenitalia stop at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, then Modane, Oulx and Turin. Leave the car at the station, arrive at Torino Porta Susa, and the parking question never arises.

Two caveats, and they matter. There are only a handful of trains a day: check the timetable before building a day around it. And the line is closed between Chambéry and Modane from 11 September to 9 October 2026, while a new platform linked to the Lyon-Turin works is brought into service.

By car, through the Fréjus tunnel

Fastest and most dependable in any season: about twenty minutes down to Saint-Jean, then the A43 to Modane, the 12.8 km of tunnel, and the A32 which drops you into Turin. Roughly two hours door to door.

The tunnel is tolled, on both sides, and the rate changes every year — check with SFTRF. Return formulas exist and are worth it as soon as you come back within a few days.

By car, over the Col du Mont-Cenis — in summer

The route you take for its own sake. The pass tops out at 2,081 metres, it is free, and it opens at the top onto a vast turquoise reservoir lake that is one of the most dramatic landscapes in the Alps. From Lanslebourg to Susa, some forty kilometres of hairpins, under an hour.

It is open only from mid-May to mid-November. Allow a good hour more than the tunnel, and treat the drive as part of the day out.

A day in Turin: what earns the trip

Turin is not Florence and does not try to be. It is a capital — of the kingdom of Savoy, then briefly of Italy — with everything that implies: ordered squares, palaces, and cafés you sit down in.

• The Egyptian Museum: the oldest museum in the world devoted to Egypt, and one of the richest after Cairo. On its own it justifies the journey. Book ahead, the queue is long.
• The Mole Antonelliana and its National Cinema Museum, in a building that resembles nothing else. The panoramic lift rises to the viewing deck, above the roofs and facing the Alps — the ones you have just crossed.
• Palazzo Reale and Piazza Castello, the seat of Savoyard power, from which the great arcaded avenues radiate.
• The arcades, indeed: eighteen kilometres of covered galleries. Raining? It changes nothing.
• The historic cafés around Piazza San Carlo, and the bicerin — coffee, chocolate and cream in three layers you do not stir. Turin is the city of gianduja; that is not tourist folklore, it is an industry.

If you have a second day: the Basilica of Superga on its hill, or the Venaria Reale and its gardens, on the outskirts.

Two practical warnings

Central Turin is a limited traffic zone (ZTL), active on weekday mornings. A car entering without a permit is fined automatically, and the fine arrives months later. Park on the edge and finish by metro — or take the train, which settles the matter.

Italian motorways are ticket-tolled, as in France. Bring a card that works at the barriers.

Albiez as a first stop

It is a pattern we see often: a few days in the mountains to begin with, then the descent into Piedmont. The order has its logic — you acclimatise to altitude and quiet before the city rather than the reverse, and the road only goes downhill.

In that direction Turin is not only a destination but a gateway: its airport, its trains to Milan, Liguria two hours further on. Albiez is the last village before the border where you still sleep in silence.

For the rest of the stay, see our Albiez guide, and the summer and ski pages depending on the season.