Me and Mathilde have a very nice tradition of organizing surprise weekend trips for each others for our birthdays. So, this Easter weekend, it was time for my surprise weekend. My excitement mounted, especially when I realized we were heading East on the motorway – that tends to mean Italy. After a bit more excitement and anticipation, the destination revealed itself to me – Turin. It’s a place we’ve been planning to visit for quite some time; we’ve just not made it so far for some reason.
Mathilde had gotten us a very nice hotel nicely located in the middle of a park, just by the river Po, which kind of traces the outskirts of Turin. We arrived pretty late on Friday night, and since it was raining, we decided not to venture to the town center; rather we dined in the nearby Pizzeria Medusa (where we were served Sicilian, rather than Piedmontese, specialties).
The next day, we got up birth ‘n early, eager to explore Turin. After a rather filling and very good breakfast (which is quite unusual for Italy) at our hotel, we took the tramway downtown. After checking out the beautifully orderly main square, Piazza del Castello (where the Royal Palace, the home of the Savoys, is located), we headed out to explore town. It quite quickly became apparent to us, that the clichés about the north/south divide that people talk about in Italy definitely has some merit to it – Turin could very well be in a different country from Naples or Palermo. Its orderliness has something almost Austrian to it (mind you – Turin is very Italian though, no doubt about that!). We also checked out the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, which houses one of the main sights in Turin – the supposed shroud of Christ (well, actually, you are allowed to see a photograph of it, not the shroud itself)
After checking out the shopping district (I ended up buying two trousers and some shoes – what’s happening to me? All that shopping had worked up a healthy appetite in us, so we soon found ourselves in a nice little tavern called Taverna Barbaroux (colleagues of Mathilde will smile at this point ;-) for a very tasty, reasonably priced lunch (I had some wild boar and polenta, yummie!). Our stomachs filled, we continued walking around Turin, finally finding ourselves at the Mole Antonelliana, probably the most famous landmark in Turin. This towering structure of 167 meters was originally built as a synagogue, but these days houses the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (which is, according to Wikipedia, the tallest museum in the world!).
As some of you may know, I am a bit of a cinephile, so naturally I was going to love this museum. IN fact, I would go so far as to say it’s the coolest cinema museum I’ve been to (beating the ones I’ve been to in London and Paris), which actually pretty much makes it the coolest museum I’ve ever been to. It’s a brilliant mixture of film memorabilia, old equipment, films being shown (the only disappointment here being that they are mostly dubbed to Italian) and various other exhibits. The museum makes brilliant use of this unique building as well. Absolute genius, anybody visiting Turin should visit this place!
This does of culture put us in the mood for a bit of proper Italian coffee – so we made our ways to one of the beautiful, historic cafes that Turin is littered with - Baratti & Milano, located at Piazza Castello. The coffee was predictably expensive, and so was the ice cream we had with it. Well, to be precise, we had Bicerin, not coffee (Bicerin is a local speciality, basically espresso coffee mixed with drinking chocolate and whole milk). But I would say it was worth it, for the beautiful location…
After a bit more walking around and shopping, it was apero time! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t a best, but thankfully there are a lot of covered passages in Turin, for finding shelter. So, we were allowed to enjoy our cocktails and munchies outside, while protected from the menace of rain.
We ended up dining at a rather special little eatery – the San Tomasso 10 (rather unimaginative name for a restaurant – it’s the address of the place!). It’s actually the birthplace of the Lavazza coffee brand – and still houses a quite famous café. The interior of the place is rather “interesting” (a rather surprising, almost psychedelic, mixture of red and white), but no complaints about the food at all. I very much enjoyed my veal encrusted in bread, followed by the Tiramisu.
The next day, we planned to start the day with a visit to the famous Porta Palazzo market. Since the sun was out, we decided to make our way there on foot – taking in some rather stunning views across the Po river on our way there. The market itself was rather a big disappointment, for the simple reason that it was shut on Sunday. Doh! So, back to the hotel on the tram!
Our next attempt at doing something cool was a visit to the Lingotto – another rather interesting feature of Turin. This huge building was originally the main FIAT factory (as you may or may not know, FIAT is from Turin) – in its heyday it employed something like 60,000 people. When the factory shut down, it was converted to a huge shopping center, which also houses a famous art gallery as well as a roof-top race track (which you may recognize from the classic Britflick the Italian Job). Unfortunately, well, it was Sunday, though, so the shops were all closed and we never managed to figure out how to make it to the roof-top race track. Oh, well…
We next made our way to the castle of Rivoli (a small town near Turin), yet another rather fascinating architectural concept. This historic castle houses a museum of contemporary art, and manages to very well fuse the historic aspects of the building with the museum. The building is absolutely lovely. On the other hand, the exhibitions left us a bit lukewarm. It was, after all, contemporary art. But, the building itself was very much worth the trip, I would say!
Our next stop for the day was another well-known Turin landmark – the Superga Cathedral. It sits imposingly on top of the Superga hill, overlooking Turin from across the Po River. It’s famous for two things, mainly, the fact that it houses the graves of the Savoy royal family, and the fact that the entire AC Milan football team perished in an air crash in 1949 (the plane actually hit the church, incredibly). What we can mostly remember are the ridiculous traffic jams getting up to the church, and especially leaving it. (I guess something to do with the fact that it was Easter Sunday?). Even though the roayal tombs were quite interesting (I fear my Italian wasn’t quite up to the standards for following the guide’s commentary, though…)
From Turin, we then carried on back towards France. Turns out we were spending the night at a rather stunning agriturismo at the outskirts of another historic Piedmontese town, called Saluzzo. After checking in, we made our way to the old town for dinner. Following the recommendations from the hotel, we found ourselves in a very cozy little eatery, hidden under the porticos of the atmospheric old town. Great choice – the food was delicious, and the prices more than reasonable, especially considering the outstanding quality.
The next day, we got to explore the town properly (after yet another excellent hotel breakfast). Saluzzo is one of those places that could be characterized as a hidden gem – seems like there are places like that all over Italy. In most countries the place would be overrun with tourists, with its cute, cobblestone streets and impressive townhouses. But in Italy, it’s “just another historic town”. That’s taking nothing away from its charm, mind you, we loved the place!
After our bried walk around Saluzzo, we decided to walk to nearby Manta – where there is apparently a nice castle. The hike took us through some very nice landscapes, covered with vineyards. Manta itself was a bit of a disappointment, though. We did find the castle, but there was some sort of Easter fiesta taking place there – which meant an entrance fee of 8 euros, and a wait of 2 hours to visit. So we decided to pay 4 euros instead to visit the gardens – turned out the gardens were just a small park in front of the castle. What a damn rip-off!
Disgusted, we walked back to Saluzzo. A rather nice lunch in Saluzzo calmed us down… By then it was time to make our way back towards France – through some rather nice mountain landscapes (we took the mountain road down the Breya valley... All in all, it was yet another brilliant Easter trip to Italy. Thank you darling for another memorable weekend!
Mathilde had gotten us a very nice hotel nicely located in the middle of a park, just by the river Po, which kind of traces the outskirts of Turin. We arrived pretty late on Friday night, and since it was raining, we decided not to venture to the town center; rather we dined in the nearby Pizzeria Medusa (where we were served Sicilian, rather than Piedmontese, specialties).
The next day, we got up birth ‘n early, eager to explore Turin. After a rather filling and very good breakfast (which is quite unusual for Italy) at our hotel, we took the tramway downtown. After checking out the beautifully orderly main square, Piazza del Castello (where the Royal Palace, the home of the Savoys, is located), we headed out to explore town. It quite quickly became apparent to us, that the clichés about the north/south divide that people talk about in Italy definitely has some merit to it – Turin could very well be in a different country from Naples or Palermo. Its orderliness has something almost Austrian to it (mind you – Turin is very Italian though, no doubt about that!). We also checked out the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, which houses one of the main sights in Turin – the supposed shroud of Christ (well, actually, you are allowed to see a photograph of it, not the shroud itself)
After checking out the shopping district (I ended up buying two trousers and some shoes – what’s happening to me? All that shopping had worked up a healthy appetite in us, so we soon found ourselves in a nice little tavern called Taverna Barbaroux (colleagues of Mathilde will smile at this point ;-) for a very tasty, reasonably priced lunch (I had some wild boar and polenta, yummie!). Our stomachs filled, we continued walking around Turin, finally finding ourselves at the Mole Antonelliana, probably the most famous landmark in Turin. This towering structure of 167 meters was originally built as a synagogue, but these days houses the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (which is, according to Wikipedia, the tallest museum in the world!). As some of you may know, I am a bit of a cinephile, so naturally I was going to love this museum. IN fact, I would go so far as to say it’s the coolest cinema museum I’ve been to (beating the ones I’ve been to in London and Paris), which actually pretty much makes it the coolest museum I’ve ever been to. It’s a brilliant mixture of film memorabilia, old equipment, films being shown (the only disappointment here being that they are mostly dubbed to Italian) and various other exhibits. The museum makes brilliant use of this unique building as well. Absolute genius, anybody visiting Turin should visit this place!
This does of culture put us in the mood for a bit of proper Italian coffee – so we made our ways to one of the beautiful, historic cafes that Turin is littered with - Baratti & Milano, located at Piazza Castello. The coffee was predictably expensive, and so was the ice cream we had with it. Well, to be precise, we had Bicerin, not coffee (Bicerin is a local speciality, basically espresso coffee mixed with drinking chocolate and whole milk). But I would say it was worth it, for the beautiful location…
After a bit more walking around and shopping, it was apero time! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t a best, but thankfully there are a lot of covered passages in Turin, for finding shelter. So, we were allowed to enjoy our cocktails and munchies outside, while protected from the menace of rain. We ended up dining at a rather special little eatery – the San Tomasso 10 (rather unimaginative name for a restaurant – it’s the address of the place!). It’s actually the birthplace of the Lavazza coffee brand – and still houses a quite famous café. The interior of the place is rather “interesting” (a rather surprising, almost psychedelic, mixture of red and white), but no complaints about the food at all. I very much enjoyed my veal encrusted in bread, followed by the Tiramisu.
The next day, we planned to start the day with a visit to the famous Porta Palazzo market. Since the sun was out, we decided to make our way there on foot – taking in some rather stunning views across the Po river on our way there. The market itself was rather a big disappointment, for the simple reason that it was shut on Sunday. Doh! So, back to the hotel on the tram! 
Our next attempt at doing something cool was a visit to the Lingotto – another rather interesting feature of Turin. This huge building was originally the main FIAT factory (as you may or may not know, FIAT is from Turin) – in its heyday it employed something like 60,000 people. When the factory shut down, it was converted to a huge shopping center, which also houses a famous art gallery as well as a roof-top race track (which you may recognize from the classic Britflick the Italian Job). Unfortunately, well, it was Sunday, though, so the shops were all closed and we never managed to figure out how to make it to the roof-top race track. Oh, well…
We next made our way to the castle of Rivoli (a small town near Turin), yet another rather fascinating architectural concept. This historic castle houses a museum of contemporary art, and manages to very well fuse the historic aspects of the building with the museum. The building is absolutely lovely. On the other hand, the exhibitions left us a bit lukewarm. It was, after all, contemporary art. But, the building itself was very much worth the trip, I would say!Our next stop for the day was another well-known Turin landmark – the Superga Cathedral. It sits imposingly on top of the Superga hill, overlooking Turin from across the Po River. It’s famous for two things, mainly, the fact that it houses the graves of the Savoy royal family, and the fact that the entire AC Milan football team perished in an air crash in 1949 (the plane actually hit the church, incredibly). What we can mostly remember are the ridiculous traffic jams getting up to the church, and especially leaving it. (I guess something to do with the fact that it was Easter Sunday?). Even though the roayal tombs were quite interesting (I fear my Italian wasn’t quite up to the standards for following the guide’s commentary, though…)
From Turin, we then carried on back towards France. Turns out we were spending the night at a rather stunning agriturismo at the outskirts of another historic Piedmontese town, called Saluzzo. After checking in, we made our way to the old town for dinner. Following the recommendations from the hotel, we found ourselves in a very cozy little eatery, hidden under the porticos of the atmospheric old town. Great choice – the food was delicious, and the prices more than reasonable, especially considering the outstanding quality.The next day, we got to explore the town properly (after yet another excellent hotel breakfast). Saluzzo is one of those places that could be characterized as a hidden gem – seems like there are places like that all over Italy. In most countries the place would be overrun with tourists, with its cute, cobblestone streets and impressive townhouses. But in Italy, it’s “just another historic town”. That’s taking nothing away from its charm, mind you, we loved the place!
After our bried walk around Saluzzo, we decided to walk to nearby Manta – where there is apparently a nice castle. The hike took us through some very nice landscapes, covered with vineyards. Manta itself was a bit of a disappointment, though. We did find the castle, but there was some sort of Easter fiesta taking place there – which meant an entrance fee of 8 euros, and a wait of 2 hours to visit. So we decided to pay 4 euros instead to visit the gardens – turned out the gardens were just a small park in front of the castle. What a damn rip-off!Disgusted, we walked back to Saluzzo. A rather nice lunch in Saluzzo calmed us down… By then it was time to make our way back towards France – through some rather nice mountain landscapes (we took the mountain road down the Breya valley... All in all, it was yet another brilliant Easter trip to Italy. Thank you darling for another memorable weekend!
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