CioccolaTò brings Turin’s chocolate makers and confectionery exhibitors together in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, with guided tastings and children’s workshops extending the festival beyond the market. Its organiser chooses dates around Valentine’s Day rather than following a fixed annual date. You can come simply to browse and buy chocolate, or make a tasting or family activity the centre of your visit.
The market gives chocolate shoppers a place to compare products, while the wider programme adds talks, demonstrations and cultural activities for food travellers. Choose a scheduled session first if you want to take part: its venue may be elsewhere in Turin, not beside the stalls.
Dates and the official programme
- Timing
- Organiser-set dates around Valentine’s Day
- Recent seasonal window
- February–March
- Recent duration
- Five days
- Market admission
- Free
- Paid participation
- Some tastings and adult workshops
Let your interest in chocolate determine how much of the programme you build into your stay. Shopping at the stalls suits a flexible visit. A guided tasting gives you a more focused way to explore chocolate, while talks and cultural activities offer something beyond buying confectionery. Families can choose children’s sessions rather than treating the whole visit as a shopping trip.
The official CioccolaTò website, cioccola.to.it, publishes the visitor programme, with @cioccolato_torino on Instagram carrying updates. The programme lets you choose by activity and venue, so use the individual session listing when deciding which part of the day to leave free.
If chocolate is one possible reason for your trip rather than the deciding one, Turin festivals worth planning around gives you other recurring celebrations to weigh against it.
The chocolate market and festival activities
| Market day type | Usual public opening |
|---|---|
| Opening afternoon | 13:00–20:00 |
| Ordinary days | 10:00–20:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00–22:00 |
Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Turin hosts CioccolaTò’s main chocolate market. Browse the exhibitors’ chocolates and other confectionery, compare the selections and choose what to take home. The opening day begins with an afternoon public session, so it is not the day to plan a morning browse.
- Name
- Piazza Vittorio Veneto
- Location
- At the eastern end of Via Po. Maps
- Essential fact
- A large square beside the River Po in central Turin.
La Casa del Cioccolato, the Chocolate House, hosts tastings, talks and sessions that explore chocolate in more depth. La Fabbrica del Cioccolato, the Chocolate Factory, lets you watch artisans and machinery at work. These give you two different ways to approach the subject: discussing and tasting the finished product, or watching how it is made.
Guided chocolate tastings recur across the festival days, chiefly in the afternoon, but not every session runs every day. The square has hosted tastings, including at the Chocolate House, while the wider programme uses venues around Turin. Choose a session by its venue as well as its subject, rather than assuming that every activity happens within the market.
The Cacao Micro-Village provides children’s chocolate workshops and activities across the festival days, from morning to late afternoon rather than at one daily slot. Workshops also use several city venues: recent examples include Scuola San Francesco d’Assisi, Museo Accorsi-Ometto and Biblioteca della Fondazione Paideia. The children’s programme therefore calls for choosing an individual activity and leaving that part of the day free at its named location.
Gianduiotto and chocolate to taste
Gianduiotto is Turin’s signature chocolate to look for at the stalls: a small, boat-shaped ingot with a ridged, tapered top. It combines chocolate with finely ground hazelnuts, traditionally from Piedmont, and is represented among CioccolaTò’s market products. Gianduja means the hazelnut-and-chocolate paste behind this flavour, also used in other confectionery.
Clop · Public domain · Edited
For a small purchase to taste or share, allow roughly €5–€15, while a gift selection typically costs around €15–€35, with quantity and elaborate packaging moving the price upwards. Buying a modest selection first lets you decide which flavours deserve a larger purchase.
Traditional gianduiotto is made without added milk, but ask for ingredient and allergen information before choosing if an allergy affects your visit. Hazelnuts are integral to it, and other products or recipes may contain milk or additional allergens. Do the same before accepting a sample, not just when buying a wrapped selection.
Reservations, costs and rooms
Reserve through the programme on the official festival website. Choose the session that fits your party, not just the chocolate you want to taste. Participant caps vary: examples include 20 places for an activity and workshop groups of 3–12 children. Some sessions also specify age restrictions, which matter when choosing a family activity.
Allow around €5 per adult for a tasting, with an additional booking fee possible. Keep chocolate purchases separate in your budget: participating in a session and shopping at the exhibitors’ stalls are different expenses.
For accommodation, a straightforward double room typically costs around €80–€130 per night, while a more central or higher-standard room often falls around €130–€220. Location, room standard and cancellation flexibility move those ranges, and popular festival weekends can push prices higher. Choose a room that suits the rest of your Turin stay rather than expecting every activity to be beside the market.
Crowds and getting around
Visit near opening on an ordinary weekday for more space at the stalls. Weekends, especially the Valentine’s Day weekend, are generally busier. Wear warm layers and footwear suitable for standing outdoors, rather than dressing only for an indoor tasting.
Arrive about 10 minutes before a reserved activity. Leave room between sessions at different venues so that browsing or a longer conversation at a stall does not make the next activity a rush.
Public-transport diversions can accompany the festival, with affected routes varying by edition. The City of Turin publishes access announcements, while Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT) publishes transport changes. On the official festival website, cioccola.to.it, open Informazioni Pratiche (practical information) for the transport notice and its link to GTT’s planned diversions. Build your journey around the activity’s actual venue, not automatically around Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: opening hours, services, and key figures.
- Camera di commercio di Torino — opening hours
- Turin Chamber of Commerce, City of Turin, and Turismo Torino e Provincia — opening hours
- CioccolaTò; Eventi 3 s.r.l. — service
- Città di Torino — service
- Turismo Torino e Provincia — service
- Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT) — service
- Città di Torino and Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT) — service
- Comunicato ufficiale
- CioccolaTò 2026 – Il programma
- Conferenza stampa CioccolaTò
- CioccolaTò 2026 – Il programma
- Camera di commercio di Torino — key figures
- Turismo Torino e Provincia — key figures
- CioccolaTò — service
