February 2026. Turin.
I always say, in a confident way that brooks no argument, that you need to visit a place at least half a dozen times to get the measure of it. And that applies whether it’s Tamworth, Toddington or Turin. I wouldn’t wish six trips to Totnes on my worst enemy, mind.
Three nights in Turin, but with the danger of a Lloyd Cole style “Lost Weekend” after those Tennent’s Super fuelled excesses of the first night, so the pressure was on us to make Sunday The Big Explore.
25,000 steps, sadly in inappropriate footwear as I hadn’t yet worn in my new Riekers, starting with a 20 minute stretch over the Dora to the northern suburbs of Aurora,
and the Lavazza HQ.
Now, this is what I’d been looking for. A flashy modern building, built over the remains of a 4th century basilica.
We’d come for the Lavazza Museum, with just enough time for an espresso and astonishing pistachio croissant in the their flagship over the road.
Never mind the Mole and the Shroud and the football; I reckon Lavazza’s museum (£10) is the essential Turin visit.
Obviously, it’s a bonus if you like coffee, but this is as much social history as manufacturing museum,
taking in the first espresso machines,
cafe culture, home economics, and coffee in space.
30 years ago we brought back a £600 Pavoni machine from Lucca, a thing of beauty but immense maintenance requirements. I haven’t seen it for 29 years; did Mrs RM really put it in the skip and replace it with a Swiss Jura ?
Lavazza give the British visitors (and I doubt there’s many of us) a little coffee cup that you place on virtual saucers to get the displays in English.
It also captures the photos you take of yourself as you go through the history of Lavazza adverts,
some of which are a bit sexist. That’s Europeans for you. The Italian ladies seemed to love them.
At the end you get a cup of espresso or bicerin, which suddenly made absolute sense with its gooey combination of coffee and chocolate.
As a connoisseur of museums, I’d say this is a masterclass of the walk-through model.
Just don’t shout “Julius Meinl is better” as you leave.
retiredmartin 
Who knew coffee could be so interesting?
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You need a lifetime in Ashford to understand it`s hidden shallows
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I’ve lived ten miles away for seventy one years ,and still haven’t.
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Been to Totnes three times. One was with work so it doesn’t count. One was the first visit, awaited with high hopes and massively disappointed to find a place so up itself. Don’t remember why I went there again, pure folly on my part.
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“With work so it doesn’t count”
One of the truest things that I’ve ever read” Bill.
Well, I probably haven’t enough years left to visit anywhere six times now, so there’s little point in going there at all it would seem.
I might sound like Stafford Paul, but that’s a relaxing and comforting thought.
I’ll get another pint.
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