Street Food in Torino: What to Try While Wandering the City

Torino is not only Michelin-starred restaurants and historic cafés. The city has a lively street food scene that blends Piedmontese tradition with international influences, perfect for those who want to taste local flavours without sitting down at a table. The Recchiuti focaccia in the Quadrilatero Romano is an institution: crisp outside, soft inside, dressed with olive oil and coarse salt. The queue outside the shop is the sign you're in the right place. Not far away, the farine of Porta Palazzo — the largest open-air market in Europe — offer a culinary trip around the world among stalls of spices, cheeses and street food from every continent. The grissini torinesi deserve a chapter of their own. Invented in 1679 by the baker Antonio Brunero for the young Vittorio Amedeo II, they have become Italy's most famous bread. The rubatà, long and irregular, made by hand, are quite different from the industrial grissini: crisp, crumbly and irresistible. The tramezzino torinese is an art form. Caffè Mulassano, under the porticoes of Piazza Castello, has been serving them since 1925 with creative fillings that change every day. Triangular, crustless, with very soft bread: the perfect snack at any hour. For those looking for more contemporary flavours, San Salvario and Vanchiglia are the neighbourhoods of new Torino gastronomy: gourmet burgers, pizza al taglio with long-fermentation doughs, artisan gelato and Northern European-inspired bakeries. And after a culinary stroll, a sweet stop with chocolate and Bicerin is the perfect ending.