The Royal Palace of the House of Savoy is the centrepiece of Turin's UNESCO World Heritage circuit. Its dignified seventeenth-century facade onto Piazza Castello hides a sequence of state apartments that runs through gilded throne rooms, an extraordinary Scala delle Forbici staircase by Filippo Juvarra, and chambers hung with portraits of the family that eventually unified Italy.
The ticket also covers the Royal Armoury, one of the world's great collections of weapons and armour, the Royal Library (with a rare Leonardo self-portrait shown on rotation), the Sabauda Gallery, and the Archaeological Museum. Allow at least half a day, and don't miss the garden behind the palace, recently restored to its formal seventeenth-century layout.