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I live in Lyon an plan on spending a long "romantic/relaxing" weekend (3-4 days) in Italy with my gf.

The thing is I want to get there by train, which means I'm pretty limited in my choice: the city needs to be close to Lyon/France.

I know I can't get further than Turin (Torino) or Genoa (Genova), so I'm trying to decide between those 2 destinations (or another?). Is there a clear difference in "tourism experience/quality" between those 2 cities? Is there a clear choice for a first time in Italy?

I'm open to other cities as well as long as they are closer to Lyon, and they are big/distractive enough for 3-4 days.

I'm asking this on objective standards. I know for example that Napoli is not a very classic touristic destination when opposed to Roma or Venice.

I hope my question is specific enough and objective enough not to get closed.

Jonik
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Matthieu Napoli
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1 Answers1

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Both Turin and Genova are two big cities able to provide you a lot of attractions, the choice of the best one really depends on what you are interested in and what kind of cities you prefer in general.

As a personal point of view I consider Turin far more elegant than Genova: nice streets with elegant buildings, the possibility to climb (by car or by a little old train) on the hill of Superga close to the city and have a wonderful view on the city and the Alps in the background, a lot of history related mostly with the period of the wars that brought to the formation of Italy as a single state (but also big roman ruins), the biggest egyptian museum in the world outside Egypt and a vibrant night-life.

Genova has a strong connection with the sea: the wonderful acquarium is considered its main attraction and its internal streets (Carrugi) are quite peculiar too. Even Genova has a rich history and has been one of the major european cities in term of power, so you can find several nice buildings reflecting this. I don't know about the night-life there but I never heard anybody praising it like I did with the Turin one.

Regarding the food, both have particular regional dishes (pesto from Genova for example) but I guess that Turin with the wonderful wines from Piemonte and the "fassona" meat could be considered better even from this point of view.

shard
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