The Porta Palazzo, Europe’s biggest open market, sits on the Piazza della Repubblica, Turin’s biggest square. The market is open six days a week and its hundreds of stalls attract thousands of visitors.
The enormous octagonal piazza is criss-crossed by tram lines and usually clogged by delivery vans, empty pallets, full boxes of fruit and vegetables, and tourists taking photos. It’s a cacophonous, intoxicating place full of vibrant colours and smells, shoppers jostling, and the dissonant sounds of city traffic, competing hawkers and many languages. It makes a great introduction to Turin because historically it has been where many of the city’s new arrivals – in previous centuries from the south of the country and more recently from Africa and Asia – have begun their new lives in this one-time capital of Italy.
