DON’T EXPECT TURIN TO FIT your image of Italy. It’s Italian, all right — the evening passeggiata and a love of good food and wine are alive and well. But you’ll look in vain for medieval cobbled streets, crumbling castles and works by Michelangelo (who never set foot here). Instead, although you’ll find some Roman ruins, you’ll also find a faux medieval village, a world-class film museum and a café life that rivals Vienna’s. You and your family will have fun here.

The family will be spoiled for choices. For glimpses of royal glitter, they can tour the palace of the Savoy princes who ruled the region for nine centuries and are responsible for much of the city’s appearance today. Turin’s broad avenues and graceful squares bordered by elegant porticos were designed to make their capital the “Paris of the South.”