Turin

Friday, May 20, 2016

With a Metro station at our front door, the trip to downtown Turin was a breeze -- about 15 minutes on the system's only line.  We were headed to the rendezvous point for Free Tour Turin, where we met up with Angelo, our guide, and a half dozen other tourists.  On several of our recent trips, when we've visited large cities for the first time, we've taken such half-day walking tours.  They provide a good introduction to a city from an enthusiastic young person who loves it and wants visitors to know why -- all for any donation the tourists see fit to make at the end of the tour.

Angelo kept us going for three hours and, thanks to him, we saw a great deal of central Turin, learned a bit of history, and got a pretty good workout!  Many of the city streets and piazzas are lined with porticoed and arcaded wide sidewalks, lined with shops, cafes and restaurants, as well as vendors' stalls offering everything from antiques, jewelry, used books, and tourist schlock; they also provide protection from the elements. A portion of Via Roma, a main thoroughfare downtown, was redesigned during the fascist era, and its blocky buildings contrast with the Baroque designs in other areas.  For example, the street leads to Piazza C.LN. (Commemorating the Liberation of the Nation), which was the site of the SS headquarters here during World War II, and shortly thereafter to the Piazza San Carlo, and the two squares could hardly be more different.  Piazza C.L.N. is surrounded with lots of severe, right-angled buildings, and flanked by massive fountains representing Turin's two rivers, the Po and the Dora.

A short block farther along Via Roma, Piazza San Carlo is an enormous space, laid out in the 16th and 17th centuries, and centered on an equestrian statue of some Savoy duke.  The entire square, from the two churches at the entrance, to the arcaded sides, which are home to two of Turin's oldest cafes, is Baroque.  We were amazed when Angelo mentioned that this Piazza, which was HUGE, was the smallest of the three main squares we'd see today!

To mix things up just a bit more, just around the corner was the beautiful Galleria San Federico, constructed during the fascist era, but in the Baroque style!  (Not to be confused with the 19th century Galleria Subalpina, also in the Baroque style, which we saw later!)

Then there is medieval Turin, whose narrow streets we walked through when we entered the Contrada (neighborhood) dei Guardinfanti, named for the women's hoop skirts that were once made and sold there. We also saw walled fortifications built during the Middle Ages atop the -- wait for it -- Roman walls and gates!  (And you thought (hoped) we were done with Roman ruins on this trip!)

Soon, in the next-up HUGE square of the day, we were in Piazza Castello, with the Savoy dynasty's massive royal palace.  This palace supplanted the previous Baroque one that, in another of the mashup of eras that this city is, had been added as a sort of bizarre facade to the existing medieval castle!

From the highly ornate Church of Corpus Domini (built on the site where bread rose to heaven after flying out of the bag containing the loot of some fleeing robbers!), to the Shroud of Turin, the city is notable for its religious history, as well.

A special altar in the duomo contains the secure, temperature-and-everything-else-controlled box containing the cloth in which some believe the crucified Christ's body was wrapped. Since the shroud was not discovered until the 14th century, there is some skepticism about its authenticity, but there are also elements of its composition that have been determined that lead many to believe it is, in fact, Christ's burial cloth.  In any case, the actual article is exhibited only every three to five years (2016 is not in the rotation), but a copy of a copy of the face imprinted on the cloth can be viewed at the cathedral.  To see what Angelo referred to as "the original copy", a visit to nearby church of St. Lorenzo is necessary!  Can you see why my head is spinning?!?

We saw lots more on our morning tour, including the symbol of Turin, the 19th century Mole Antonelliana, which was for a time the tallest masonry building in Europe.  Originally planned as a synagogue, the architect's plans for an ever higher construction put it out of reach of the local Jewish community's finances, the city took it over, and it now houses a museum of cinema!

Our tour ended with a walk (by this time, it was beginning to seem like a forced march) through the
Piazza Vittorio Veneto, "the largest square with arcades" in Europe, down to the Po River.  By that time, we were ready to just sit in the shade across the river and have lunch, which we did -- and then sat some more...

Feeling refreshed, we walked along the river and crossed back to the center of the city to walk a bit through the Parco del Valentino, Turin's version of Central Park, where locals were taking advantage of the green lawns and warm afternoon to sunbathe.

We wanted to see a bit more of the historic city center, and headed to Via La Grange, which parallels Via Roma. This pedestrianized street was lively and that, along with an energy boost from our gelato (flavor: guanduja, based on the local chocolate and hazelnut confection that became Nutella), made us want to keep on exploring.  We walked the length of the long pedestrian shopping street, Via Garibaldi from Piazza Castello to Piazza Statuto, the Metro, and home.

I realize that this day's post seems like a real mishmash, but I wanted to record enough information before it vanished forever from my memory, and also give Tom an opportunity to add whatever photos he wants to include.

We very much enjoyed what we saw of Turin today, and there was much more than I mentioned here.  This brief taste of the city has been a revelation.  Though we've been to Italy quite a few times,  this is our first visit to Turin, and I'll admit that I'd always thought of it as an industrial, business-oriented city -- which it is -- but I'd never known anything about what came before the modern Turin,  or that its historical center would have so much to offer.

There's much more to see here, including several important museums, but though we're staying in the city one more day, we're planning to head out of town tomorrow.  The glimpses of the snow-covered Alps that we've seen surrounding the city, and the views from our apartment windows are enticing, and we've decided to answer their Siren Call and head for the high country to have a closer look.