Touring Turin

A very good whatever time of day it is to you all! I am currently sitting in my bed feeling rather sorry for myself as I am recovery from the flu. It would appear having a chest infection is not enough sickness for one winter so the flu came to say hello too. In fact that is why there was no post last week as my brain could not hold enough concentration even to read my book let alone write out a relatively eloquent post for you all. Which, by the way, bugged me as I do happen to have a particularly fantastic 3 day weekend I wanted to share with you all while it was still fresh in my mind, however, a week as not completely lost it from memory. So here we go, my three day holiday in the amazing city of Turin.




The best thing about Turin is that in that one city name, so much significance is stored. To any football fanatic they will instantly think JUVENTUS (a team I have come to learn far more about in my time here in Italy than I ever intended learning about any football sports team. Ever!) To historians it is full battles between Europe, it holds the old Parliament house from its time as Italy’s Capital. For chocolatiers it is the birth place of the idea to combine chocolate with hazelnuts which eventually brought that amazing spread everyone has come to know and love. Nutella. But whatever your passion is, it would seem this city holds some form of it in its chock-a-block full history.

My lamp lit rain wet first view of Turin

 When I first decided to go to Turin, Filomena went through my Lonely Planet Italy book, pointing out all the sights I simple HAD to see. This then gave me an idea. As any regular readers will know, when I go and play tourist in a new city I always end up seeing the big sights famous to the area and then just end up wandering the streets and exploring the city that way. I am in no way saying I dislike this approach, in contrast I love it hence always doing it. But this time I figured, why not do a proper, full on, Lonely Planet recommended tour of Turin? So that’s exactly what I did. I mapped out activities, cafes, sights and museums for each day. That meant that when I arrived in Turin, despite the fact it was 5ᵒC and raining, I grabbed my map (as little help as it probably would be to me!) and finally found Grom which according to my guide book was the number one gelateria in Turin. That hazelnut and chocolate gelato did certainly manage to find a place on my top gelaterias in Italy. The smoothness of it, and the real and intense but not too sweet flavour was truly delicious.

As I only had an afternoon that Friday due to the train ride, I decided to spend the rest of it at the Egyptian Museum. And here is where I become lost for words. I honestly don’t even know how top describe how amazing this museum is. The first room is so jam-packed full of artefacts that you could spend an entire day just in that one room and not have seen everything in all its detail. The intricacy and age of these pieces blew my mind. And from there, every room just got better and better. I saw real life (well dead) mummies, their sarcophagus’ and treasures which were laid to rest with them. Statues lit in an eerie gold light casting spooky shadows across the floor, reflected by floor to ceiling walls making their quantity more yet ever changing. Whenever I try to find a way into which to describe the amazingness of this place all I come up with is asdfghjkl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just please, if you EVER even pass through Turin, go to this museum!





A real life (dead) Mummy

 

Ancient Book of the Dead



Incredibly preserved remains of a Mummy



Ancient Egyptian statue



Ancient Egyptian statues

 The next day was full of more museums, the Museo di Rigmento  and the Cinema museum. While the Museo di Rigmento was very interesting, the Cinema Museum definitely stole the spotlight for the day. It is a fully interactional museum showing both the history of film on the first floor and a huge variety of fully themed rooms for different time periods, film generes and film making techniques/methods on the second. Another museum that would easy take up several days leaving you still wanting to see more. If you have time after the Egyptian museum you simply must go here next!



Mole Antonelliana - home to the Cinema Museum



Costumes from Gangs of New York (yes including Leonardo's!)



Wall of fame

As per my stomachs rumblings and Lonely Planet’s instructions I made my way to Giordano, the famous chocolateria in Turin for a hot chocolate. Now my idea of a hot chocolate from my experience in England and New Zealand is the use of either a powder or syrup of sorts at the bottom of a cup with a bunch of boiling water or hot milk poured on top. Then you drink it. Well, it would turn out that Italian hot chocolate is not quite the same. What I was given was a spoon and a takeaway cup full of what looked like the syrup one may use in a hot chocolate. It soon became obvious that drinking this would be both take an incredibly long time and it would be rather messy so I opted for the spoon. My first mouthful I expected that sickly sweet syrup that is the base of what I know to be hot chocolate, but I was surprised and delighted when instead was an intensely chocolatey though not hugely sweet flavour. All I have to say on the matter is going back to my previously known watery version will undoubtedly be a bit of a let-down.



The incredible Italian hot chocolate

  On my last day I was blessed with a sunny sky and was glad that I had planned to use this day to see Lonely Plante’s Turin sights. This began with a walk up to the top of a hill where I was able to see over the whole of Turin as well as the stunning mountains as it’s backdrop. Here I have to let the photos speak for themselves (though in saying this, the photos still don't give the view justice!), but it was truly stunning and I must have stood there a rather long time, long enough for other sight seers to come and go in the meantime anyway. For the remainder of the day before my train I walked around finding and seeing the beautiful sights all of which will all be gems in my Turin memory box.



Panoramic view of Turin

 

Hill top view of the Mole Antonelliana

Now I realise I have written a rather huge amount today so need to wrap it all up rather quickly with this one simple sentence. If Turin is not already on your places to go, put it there.

Little Pieces of Ravenna

I have been in Italy for 9 months now. When I first arrived I could not stop marvelling at its beauty, how different it was to New Zealand. I loved the old cities and the amazing, ancient buildings. I thought I would never, ever get used to it! But, put someone in a place, no matter how beautiful, for long enough and you will find that they do. Of course I still find the cities, churches, cathedrals, narrow streets and bustling markets just as beautiful as when I came, but more in the way that you look at a sunset, find it stunning but it isn’t something you haven’t seen before. Each city I have been to in Italy, like each sunset, is slightly different, but still basically a variation on the same theme. So when I found myself walking the streets of Ravenna, I still admired the beauty of the place, but perhaps not in the way I would have had it been the first Italian city I had seen. That was until I walked into the first Basilica, Basilica di San Vitale. Then Ravenna changed from a beautiful though seen before sunset to one of those spectacular ones that still make you stop, catch your breath and marvel at the beauty in this world as though seeing it for the first time. 

 

Outside view of Basilica di San Vitale

 

Outside view of Basilica di San Vitale

Why? One word; mosaics.

I had of course seen mosaic work before, namely on the Duomo in Florence, but I had never seen anything of this magnitude, intricacy and beauty before. I cannot even begin to describe how I felt as I walked through those large doors of the Basilica di San Vitale, into the centre of the room, turned to face the Alter and stopped dead in my tracks. Undoubtedly my mouth dropped comically open. The entire back wall, side arches and roof were covered in beautiful, detailed mosaics. I had never seen anything like it. If you stood far enough back or slightly squinted your eyes it looked like a vibrant painting, but taking a closer look you could see the pea sized coloured tiles that made up the different biblical scenes and detailed patterns along the wall. The fact that they were made hundreds of years ago only added to my wonderment. I could have stood there for hours, every second seeing something new in those thousands of tiles. However, the multi-destination ticket I had purchased that morning meant that I had to move on so I could see the rest of Ravenna’s unique beauty before it was time to go home.

Mosaic work in Basilica di San Vitale

Mosaic work in Basilica di San Vitale

For the next 5 hours I walked in and out of museums and churches, each with its own stunning mosaic work slightly different from the last. Each making me catch my breath and stand speechless at the work of the artists who had spent so much time creating beauty that would outlive them for centuries. Though I am not particularly artistic myself and doubt I will ever leave such a legacy, it must be amazing to have created something like that. Something that took so much effort that it was truly a part of you so that even years after your death you will bring joy to the people who will look at that beautiful part of you that was left behind.

 

More of Ravenna's beauty

 

More of Ravenna's beauty

 

More of Ravenna's beauty

 

More of Ravenna's beauty