Early July 2020, I stayed in a Piedmonte countryside apartment near Turin for a week and visited all the buildings included in the inscription.

At the tourist office in Turin, I bought the 'Royal Card Torino' which costs €35 and is valid for 7 days, a substantial saving on the regular entrance fees. In addition to the palaces in Turin and Piedmonte, it includes also access to the rooftop of the Superga Basilica and a tour of the Royal Tombs below the Basilica, which are an interesting addition to the palaces. The Royal apartments at Superga were closed.

With a bit of advance planning I could visit all the places within this week, though many had limited opening hours due to Covid-19 and most had to be reserved in advance, either via mail or online. 

At La Reggia di Venaria I was able to visit an open air modern dance performance which was moving, followed by a poetry reading in Italian. The next day I went to visit the apartments at La Venaria, followed by a visit to La Mandria which is at the back of La Venaria. However, it is quite a walk along the fence of La Venaria gardens towards La Mandria, in hindsight it would have been better to drive to the entrance of the estate on which La Mandria is located. Due to the long walk, I missed the reserved timeslot for the visit but this turned out to be no problem as there were almost no visitors.

I found the diversity of the palaces striking and also was fascinated by the different state the palaces were in, La Venaria was renovated but felt a bit overdone, while Racconigi is a recent renovation which is very meticulously done. Then others, such as the Castello di Moncalieri are crumbling or renovation is just about to start. The Castello di Rivoli is only partially rebuilt, though still huge, and the modern art inside creates an interesting contrast with the traditional palace rooms. Also noteworthy is that several of the palaces are placed on the axes of the old main roads to Turin. Some palaces are built on top of hills, as to impress the people approaching on these roads.

The gardens surrounding the palaces were generally slightly unkempt but with beautiful old trees, with the exception of the huge gardens in La Venaria which are renovated in a not very refined way but as a whole are still impressive for their scale and design, and their views towards the mountains. 

In five of the Piedmonte palaces, the only way to visit was by guided tour, all only available in Italian. Sometimes explanations in English were available in the rooms, another time I was the only participant and the guide spoke very slowly so I could understand. I did not feel I missed essential information anywhere. In any case, the experience to me was mostly in the impressions of the architecture and the rooms.

From the nine locations outside Turin, only one could not be visited from the inside. The Pollenzo Estate is on a culinary university campus with adjoining hotel grounds, and I walked around in the courtyard and the hotel park garden, in which stand a Roman Arch and a few other Roman ruins.

In Turin, I visited the Royal Museum with access to the Palazzo Royale, the Royal Armory and the rebuilt Chapel of the Holy Shroud, which was almost finished after the previous chapel was destroyed by a fire.

The Cargignano Palace contains both the Museo of the Risorgimento on the upper floor, and the Apartments del Principe on the ground floor. The apartments could only be visited on a very interesting guided tour during the weekend. The museum upstairs has an altogether different reception area and has more elaborate opening times, though I did not find the exhibits very captivating, it is a huge multimedia presentation with all possible details on the Risorgimento, the Italian unification, only sound, image and lots of text. I just focused on the rooms and the architecture of the palace.

I walked uphill to the Villa della Regina and visited palace and gardens, here I could visit individually. I also walked along the river to the Castello del Valentino, which could only be admired from the outside. 

The Palazzo Madame is also included in the Royal Card but when I tried to visit on my last day, there was a special exhibition which made this the only palace which was actually busy. After standing in line for 30 minutes without much progress, I happily decided to call it a week and go for an ice cream. I had to admit I was rather palaced-out.