Saluzzo & Cuneo from Turin

Saluzzo and Cuneo sit on the southern Piedmont plain beneath the Maritime and Cottian Alps, an easy pair of day trips from Turin in Cuneo Province. Trains reach Cuneo in about 1.5 hours and Saluzzo (via Savigliano) in around an hour, while the SP roads and the A6 motorway head south by car. Saluzzo is the more atmospheric of the two: once the proud capital of an independent marquisate that resisted Savoy rule until the 16th century, it preserves a steep, beautifully intact medieval upper town of cobbled lanes, noble houses, and Gothic churches climbing to La Castiglia, the marquises' castle, and the Torre Civica, with panoramic views across the plain toward the pyramid of Monviso, the peak from which the river Po rises. The lower town is graceful and arcaded, and the whole place has the feel of a small Renaissance court frozen in time, with the nearby Castello di Manta and its famous frescoes a short excursion away. Cuneo, the provincial capital, has a very different character: a planned town set on a wedge of land between two rivers, defined by kilometres of elegant porticoes and the vast Piazza Galimberti at its heart, where a huge market - one of the largest in Piedmont - fills the square on Tuesdays. Cuneo is famous for its confectionery, above all the cuneesi al rhum, chocolate shells filled with rum-laced cream, best sampled at the historic Arione café. A sensible one-day arc takes in one town in depth or both at a brisk pace: a morning climbing Saluzzo's old town and an afternoon strolling Cuneo's arcades and sampling its chocolate, or vice versa. Both towns are gateways to the Occitan-speaking Alpine valleys that fan out to the west - the Valle Maira, Valle Grana, and Valle Stura - with their stone hamlets, hiking, and the Castelmagno DOP cheese. Southern Piedmontese cuisine is hearty and distinctive: ravioli and agnolotti, Castelmagno cheese, chestnuts, snails, and the rum chocolates of Cuneo. Spring through autumn offers the most pleasant weather for walking the hill town and the arcades, with autumn adding chestnuts and the first Alpine snows on the surrounding peaks.