Torino: Longest. Line. Ever. EVAR.

I'll get to that part later. First I want to talk about dinner.

Last Saturday night a group of us went out to a local restaurant, 'Osteria Del'Orso', to have some food and continue celebrating the birthday week of our classmates. It's a very low-key, student oriented place, and it has a reputation for serving up good local cuisine that fit a student's budget. The place itself was much like the last osteria we went to right before Easter, in that it was just a couple of big rooms with huge wooden communal tables and bench seats. I was hoping to try some lasagna or tagliatelle al ragu, local specialties, but neither was on the menu that night. But what I had instead was still really good. It was a  ravioli pasta dish, filled with mascarpone cheese and with a kind of pesto sauce that incorporated pistachios. Quite delicious! I also had a few nibbles of my classmates' choices, like potato gnocchi in a spicy tomato sauce, and 'strozzapreti' pasta in a creamy sauce with bits of sausage. Strozzapreti translates to 'strangled priests' and, despite topical allusions, derives its name from the twisted shape of the pasta. Besides the food, the wine was plentiful, and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable night. Afterwards we ended up in a piazza, having some beers on a patio in the fresh spring air. As we were getting ready to turn in for the night, the peaceful evening was interrupted by what sounded like someone imitating a dog bark. I looked around to see what was going on, and soon the culprit became clear. It was the Contessa (Countess), an infamous Bologna resident whom I had yet to encounter up to this point. Apparently, the scantily-clad, past-her-prime, drunk/crazy woman wanders the streets of Bologna late at night in that particular quarter of the city, like an inebriated phantasm; she sings, dances, yells unintelligibly, and slaps guys on the ass, generally causing a ruckus. I was terrified and fascinated at the same time by the trainwreck that was unfolding in front of us. Luckily we kept our distance, as she proceeded to live up to her reputation of doling out a few hearty ass-slaps for some lucky gents a short ways away from us. The spectacle was the perfect end to the evening.

Most of the week was spent working on school stuff. We had a draft of a report to turn in for our Strategic Management Accounting class (the one taught by the Aussie), so that ate up a lot of free time. Meanwhile, I was also planning my trip to Torino (Turin) during the week. One notable night was Monday, when I had aperitivo with a couple friends from class. One of the girls is Russian and she had some friends from home visiting her, a pair of girls studying foreign languages in Trieste, a far Northeastern city in Italy (practically Slovenia/Croatia). They were nice and we had a good time eating and chatting, but what I found really interesting was that apparently in Russia (or at the least, the university these girls were attending), if you want to study foreign languages then you don't get to pick WHICH one. It's like language roulette - the school just assigns you a language to learn. I could hardly believe it! I couldn't imagine being assigned a language that I had no interest in. I jokingly asked if someone could end up with something crazy like Mongolian, but she assured me she knew someone who had. I guess they are lucky that they ended up in a nice touristy country for their study abroad portion!

Wednesday was my big day for the week, and I got up bright and early to start the trip to Torino. I wanted to catch the earliest train possible, since it's a four hour train ride and I wanted to spend as much time in the city as possible. Well the first train from Bologna was at 4:50am, and the buses don't run that early so I was up and out the door just after 4am to get to the station. The ride their was an adventure in itself; the reason it takes so long is because it is a slower 'regional' train which stops at many more places along the way. At one of the stops, a group of three African gals boarded and sat in the same section as me. Nothing unusual, as there are quite a few immigrants from Africa here in Italy. But what I wasn't expecting was that about 20 minutes into the ride, all three of the women produced a little 'train tent' from their purses; I assume it must be an African thing, because I've never seen it before on a train. Basically, it was a zippered sheet of cloth kept folded up in the purse, and they wrapped it around their bodies, head and all, and then zipped themselves up for forty winks. It looked pretty hilarious from the outside, but I guess it's a decent enough idea - keeps out the light from those early morning rides when you want to sleep, and keeps your valuables safe inside with you. I, on the other hand, was not sleeping much at all, despite only having a few hours of sleep the previous night; the seats on the train are just too damn uncomfortable for me. Finally, after four hours, we pulled up to the main Torino station at just after 9am.

The piazza outside the train station

Torino is an ancient city, pre-Roman in its founding. But most of its architecture is relatively modern; unlike Bologna and other Italian cities such as Firenze, which retain their medieval city centers, most of Torino's architecture is baroque 18th/19th Century style. A large part of that is due to it being the center of the Italian 'Risorgimento', basically the equivalent of our Revolution against the Brits. If you didn't know it before, it may come as a surprise to learn that Italy has only been a country since 1861 when the different regions of the peninsula were politically unified under King Vittorio Emmanuele II. Before then, different regions changed hands between the French, Spanish, Austrians, Papal authorities, and others which included the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont (ie the House of Savoy), of which Vittorio Emmanuele was the heir; Torino, being in Piedmont, was the natural choice for him as the first capital. Thus many of the beautiful baroque buildings came about as the result of newfound political relevance for the city in the 19th Century, in addition to the pre-existing baroque architecture of the House of Savoy. 

I whipped out my map, figured out which direction I needed to head in, and made a beeline for my first destination.  Not having eaten anything between 330am when I woke up and 9am when I finally arrived, my first goal was to find a nice café for breakfast along the way. In fact I did, and enjoyed a nice Italian coffee (teeny little thimbleful of espresso) and a croissant filled with the local chocolate specialty, gianduia. After that, it was a short walk towards the city center. Torino is very compact, thankfully, which made getting around a breeze. It was also really clean, probably because it is about a thousand times more touristy than Bologna; the piazzas were much larger too, giving it a bit of a more open-air feel.

A skinny little building near where I had my breakfast

Not sure what this place is, but it looked cool

This palazzo houses an art exhibit I would return to see later, and also the Egyptian Museum - one of the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Egypt.

Piazza Carignano

First stop was in Piazza Carignano. Here there is a building, Palazzo Carignano, that was originally intended to host the new Italian Parliament. However, before the construction was completed, the capital was moved to Firenze, then Roma. Doh! The building itself is very cool, and the inside is supposed to be very nice as well, with a museum dedicated to the unification movement. But, it was under restoration at the time, so it was closed to the public. 

No idea, could be anyone

The unique architecture of Palazzo Carignano

When you walk through the entrance of the palazzo that faces Piazza Carignano, you're greeted with this view onto the interior courtyard

The interior and exterior were undergoing restorations; here you can see the difference it makes

View from inside the courtyard back towards Piazza Carignano

Another piazza behind the palazzo, with this monument to Carlo Alberto (whom I believe was Vittorio Emmanuele's father)

The facade of the palazzo facing the rear piazza. Nice!

After Palazzo Carignano, it was time to head towards the very heart of the city, Piazza Castello, which houses a castle, a royal palace, and museums, among other things. 

Palazzo Madama, in the center of Piazza Castello

Palazzo Madama started life in Roman times as part of the defensive wall of the city. Two of the towers were part of this original construction, functioning as one of the main gates of the city during the Roman era. Over the centuries, the defensive role of the building changed, and various parts were added; the gates were closed off and expanded into a fortification in medieval times, and the whole structure was left standing alone when the walls were repositioned elsewhere. At the start of the 18^th century, a baroque façade was built on to the gloomy castle front, reflecting its choice as the residence for a series of Savoy nobles. Now it houses the Civic Museum of Ancient Art, which was putting on a special show on occasion of the Shroud exhibition.

Another view, with the Roman towers quite evident

Here you can see part of the palazzo, and a portion of the royal palace in the background

Another view showing the different buildings facing the piazza

From here, it was off to my next stop. Part of the Royal Palace houses the Armeria Reale (Royal Armory), which has weapons from all over the world representing prehistory all the way through the Italian Risorgimento. There is a huge hall dedicated to medieval and renaissance weaponry and suits of armor, which was really cool! There must have been at least 50 full suits, some mounted on stuffed horses and everything (no Trigger, I checked).  There were stone weapons and arrowheads, Greek helmets and swords, TONS of nasty looking weapons from the middle ages, and a big section of rifles from all over the world. I wish I had Dad and our shooting crew there for that part. There was an amazing assortment of guns, many of them gifts to the royal Savoy family from ambassadors in all different parts of the world; guns from India, Thailand, Persia, and Arabia, all decked out with jewels and carved ivory. There were a lot of examples from the Italian militaries at the time of the Risorgimento, and even some Winchesters from that period (1860s). There were a lot of crazy examples too: one shoulder fired rifle with what must have been a caliber of more than an inch, some rifles with barrels two yards long, even a twelve shot revolver rifle! The guys would have got a kick out of it. I happened to be there at the same time as a big group of Italian gradeschoolers on a field trip, so there were a lot of museum personnel scattered about which inhibited picture taking. But I did make off with a few shots of the melee weapon and armor hall:

Medieval badasses

After the Armeria, it was time to head back out to the piazza and see some other things. Next stop was the interior of Palazzo Madama, but first some more shots of Piazza Castello:

This is the baroque facade attached to the castle in the 18th century

Another angle of the piazza. The Armeria to the left, and Madama to the right. The tower in the back is part of the Mole Antonelliana, the most famous symbol of Torino

Palazzo Reale, the royal palace. Looks pretty kingly to me

Whew! I am not the nerdiest person on the piazza. Actually I'm not even in second place!

Some more interesting architecture on the square

Another view of Palazzo Madama

I spent a good deal of time inside the castle, looking at various examples of artwork from the region and from farther away in Italy. The museum was set up in different clusters of rooms spread out over four floors of the building, and even the towers housed exhibits. Here are a couple examples I was able to snap:

The ground floor showed some of the excavations down to the medieval and Roman ruins of the castle:

Some antique oddities: astrolabes, solar season measuring device, an old desk clock and a pocket watch

A medieval period mosaic (you know I'm a sucker for mosaics)

Looking out the upper floor towards the East. The dome of the Mole Antonelliana is visible on the left

Another view. The spherical church at the long end of the street was the setting of a scene in the original 'Italian Job' movie

Looking out across the piazza from an upper floor.

In the basement there was a well with TONS of coins and *banknotes* people had thrown in... if I'd had an accomplice, I could have paid for the trip!

It was getting close to the time I needed to leave for my reservation to see the Sindone (the Holy Shroud), so I made my way to the exit. As I was literally walking out the door, a museum employee seated next to the exit said something to me that I didn’t catch at first. I stopped for a second to ask her what she said, and it turns out it was just a survey for the museum visit. I had about 15 minutes before the time for my reservation, so I figured I could answer a couple of quick questions without harm. Of course, that was not the case, and as the survey dragged on for about four minutes I stopped the nice young lady and politely explained the situation. She said she’d go fast and it would only take a minute, so I obliged, and I was shortly on my way. Having lost a few precious minutes and not knowing precisely where it was I was heading to, I hurried through the streets of Torino to where I thought the entrance for the showing of the Sindone was. As I passed entrance after entrance to the church, museum, royal palace, etc, there was always a police officer on duty, whom I asked for guidance, and of course the reply was always ‘keep going, just a few more meters!’ I was only about five minutes shy of the appointment time, so by now I was panicking a little. Finally I came to the Royal Gardens, entrance for the exhibition, and was suddenly not so concerned about my five minutes to spare when I was greeted by this:

Silly me, seven months in Italy and I actually thought that having an appointment meant something. I guess reserving a time to see the shroud is just a ploy to try and not have everyone show up at the same time, because there was no control of ticket times at all. Either that or the entire world also had a reservation at 12:45 like I did. The line actually was moving fairly quickly, which at first seemed like a good thing. However, after hour number two of *constantly* moving in line, I can safely say this is the LONGEST DAMN LINE I HAVE EVER BEEN IN IN MY WHOLE LIFE. The line itself took a circuitous route throughout the entire length of the garden (which was sizeable, mind you), wrapping back on itself, following walls of the royal palace, wrapping around the interior gardens, heading BACK out towards the street, hugging the walls of a courtyard next to the cathedral, doubling back upon itself up a switchback platform beside the cathedral, through the royal stables, and finally following the course of the cathedral walls itself. I couldn’t believe it; every time we rounded a corner, the line got longer. There were about five different ‘checkpoints’ in the line, presumably there to give false hope that one is nearing the Sindone and keeping the crowd from rioting. There was stuff set up along the way to keep us occupied, like art displays pertinent to the Shroud, some antique busts in the stables, and the path of the line also passed the ruins of the Roman amphitheater in Torino:

However, after all that, I finally made it into the cathedral where the Shroud was on display. It was a neat set up, with the cloth suspended lengthwise on a platform above the main altar, only about ten feet away from us, with almost total darkness in the cathedral itself and the Shroud backlit on its display. It was quite a bit bigger than I was expecting. 

We only had about four minutes to stay there and observe before we were ushered out for the next group to see, but it was worth it. It’s something you certainly don’t get to see every day (the last exhibition was in 2000), and despite the various views as to the authenticity of the Sindone, science still hasn’t been able to explain how it was created. I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to see it while I am here in Italy.

Although I was really glad I went to see the Shroud, I was in a bit of a pickle now because it had taken over two hours to go through the process, instead of the half hour or 45 minutes I was expecting. Now I had to rearrange my plans and pick which of my destinations I really wanted to see, as I had to catch a train home at 6:20pm and it was already past 3 o’clock. I could have gone for another train at 9pm, but all the museums closed around 6pm anyway, so I would just be twiddling my thumbs for three hours if I did that. So, it was off to the next stop: the antiquities museum, right next to the Royal Gardens where my adventure had begun two plus hours before.

Unfortunately, as I have plans for tonight and time is running short, I'll have to save the rest of the updates for tomorrow night!