4Oct12 Turin
The first part of the train trip was interesting as we shirted along the seaside to Genoa but the second half of the journey was rather dull and a little boring .The train route is through rural farm land and the fields are predominantly barren at this time of the year with the crops having been harvested so there wasn't a great deal to keep us interested. The most interesting part was a large castle just short of Turin.
We have lashed out and are staying in a three star hotel. It is quite nice and has a balcony that overlooks a courtyard and other apartments in the block. I like it and can see how/why people find living in inner city apartments appealing at certain periods during their life . There is a very popular gelato place next door and we regularly see queues out the door. Must be good. Will have to try this some time during our stay.
We wandered into the old city. It is huge and impressive and we end up at the cities most recognized landmark the Mole Antonelliana which dominates the city. We jump in the elevator for the city view. It is an interesting elevator as it is only on cables no rigid structure and runs though the centre of the building which houses a cinema museum. The only problem is that it can only house 7 people at a time so there are queues on the way up and down. Hot tip. Go to the bathroom before heading up as there is none on top and the queues are long. The views were good but we could not see the mountains due to the clouds.
Light was fading so we headed back to the hotel.
5Oct12 Turn
We decided to purchase the Turin card for 48hrs and decided that we would try and see as many museums as possible to get our monies worth. The tourist information people were very helpful and advised us that it would be worth the money if we went to 3 or more museums. Three? Such a low number. We were aiming much higher but would we have the stamina??
Peale Palace. This is over the top in tizzyness. We signed up for an English tour of the upstairs apartment only to find that it was only being offered in Italian with english translation cards for us. I didn't particularly like the palace it was just far too extravagant and as I said far over the top . The garden was unfortunately overgrown which was a shame but you could see that it once had a nice design.
Cinema museum. This is a really cool display of optics and the evolution of motion photography. Vanessa and I spent hours wandering around and interacting with displays. Very good. Even had a corset from Marilyn Monroe - It was a surprise as I thought her boobs were bigger...
Boat cruise. This is a joke. It was a floating toilet break for me.. The trip probably only went 1km downstream before returning.
Egyptian museum. This is amazing. The Italians have been tomb raiding on a large scale. It is the second largest Egyptian museum in the world other than Cairo and it much more orderly. My highlight was the map of the pharo gold mines. These have been used to locate and rework the mines! Vanessa was probably bored but I loved it.
We wandered around the city and ended up taking the long way back to the hotel. It is amazing how large an area the old section of the city extends. I suppose it is no surprise as the savoy dynasty was based in Turin.
Remember that Gelato shop? La Romana Gelateria established in 1947 and still popular. Vanessa and I wandered in and ordered a tub of gelato for 5 euro. A lot of finger pointing as they did not understand english. The gelato was the best we have ever eaten. Very smooth.
Vanessa and I have now learnt how to read roman numbers.
6Oct12 Turn
The reason to visit Turin is to see the shroud of Turin. We were led around the museum by a lovely and enthusiastic old Italian man who did not speak English. Luckily there were audio guides in English. The museum was fascinating, integrating and creepy at the same time. They had a full size copy of the shroud and a 3D hologram of the body image. i cannot stop thinking about the science relating to the creation of the shroud but of course have no better theory than any other already presented. Not quite sure what to think about it and I have read the literature again since visiting. The actual shroud is housed in the Turin cathedral.
We visited the bibliotech to see the self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci but found out that it was rarely on display. I researched the drawing later and found that it was quite degraded due to exposure to sunlight so can understand why it is not on display. The library was lovely to visit anyway.
Next museum was a smaller palace in the main square. It was an odd mix of displays with some weird modern art thrown in. I liked the palace but did not like the art. The garden was nice.
We ate at Eataly-Slow Food Movement’s restaurant . It was a challenge to order something useful so a relief when the waitress spoke English. I now understand the true meaning of al dente after eating the pasta . The food was nice and filling and the wine made us light headed so we headed back to the hotel via the back streets.
I think that the secret to good inner city living is a good mix of quality architecture, accommodation, shops, food, museums and parks. The price must be fair. Turin has this mix.
Very nice stay in Turin. It does not have the art galleries of Florence but is a lovely city with nice architecture and I liked it.
