After seeing the Shroud, I headed off to find the Museum of Antiquities. It was close by; in fact I'd already passed by the entrance on the long route of the waiting line. Here are a few sights from along the way:
The front of the cathedral where the Sindone is kept
Some Roman ruins across from the cathedral. The towers are similar to those of Palazzo Madama
After the brief stop it was off to the museum. Although the dysfunctional bureaucracy and general disregard for stated rules and regulations can generally be a pain in the ass here in Italy, every once in a while it works out in my favor. I think every museum I’ve entered in Italy, including this trip, allowed me discounted or even free access even though I don’t technically meet the requirements for their various reduced admittance policies. It usually goes something like this:
Me: “Hi, one ticket please. Is there a discount for students?”
Bored museum attendant: “ Are you an art or history student?”
Me: “Uhhh business”
B.M.A.: “How old are you?”
Me: “26”
B.M.A.:
Me:
B.M.A.: “Oh just go on in”
I think most of the time they are just happy that there is a young person interested in seeing cultural stuff. Or maybe they really just don’t give a shit. Either way, I pay less, so it’s a win! The antiquities museum houses a large collection of artifacts and sculptures of the region from prehistory through medieval times. The collection itself is housed in what used to be the greenhouse for the royal palace. Here are some items from the museum:
A mosaic of Orpheus. In elementary school my favorite book at the library was one of Greek mythology, and this story always stuck out in my mind
Etruscan daggers
Etruscan Gumby and Pokey
Zoolander?
After that, I went off to find Torino's most famous landmark; the Mole Antonelliana. It was begun as a synagogue in the 1860s after Italian unification but later was sold to the city after disputes between the architect and the Jewish community. It now houses the national museum of cinema. I didn't go inside but as you can see, it is a pretty impressive building! It has the distinction of being the tallest museum in the world.
Poking up above the rest of the city, from a distance
If you look reeeeeeally hard, you can see little tiny people up there (tip: click on the picture and you'll get a higher resolution version)
At this point, I was pretty much starving, and time was running short. I decided to cut a few places from my itinerary, despite their close proximity, in favor of getting to see the Galleria Sabauda and its collection of paintings before I had to go. On the way I kept my eyes open for a quick bite to eat, and settled on a little cafe off of Piazza Castello that had some sandwiches ready to go. I grabbed a speck and brie piadina (basically a wrap with meat and cheese) and headed off towards the Galleria. On the way I stopped in Piazza Carignano again to have a seat and enjoy the sandwich. Speck tends to be a little tough as far as deli meats go, and I was somewhat regretting the choice as I was scraping bits of meat out of my teeth when up walked a vagrant, babbling in Italian to some poor city worker emptying out the garbage cans in the piazza. He saw me eating and shuffled towards me, asking if I could spare some change. I tried my 'Sorry, I don't speak Italian' bit but he wasn't leaving, and proceeded to ask for a bite of my sandwich. I surveyed the situation: there was a family sitting on the bench next to me, watching the scene, waiting to see if I would ditch the bum thereby making them the next target for supplication; then there was the bum, licking his dirty hobo lips and hoping to share my sandwich; and of course the sandwich, which was not terribly appetizing any more. Well God knows I wasn't going to let him have just a bite then finish the rest of it myself, after putting his gross mouth all over my meal, so I just gave him the remaining third of the stringy sandwich and told him to enjoy. He was ecstatic, the family was relieved, and I didn't have to pick any more speck out of my teeth. It was a win win for everyone. So I hurried off to the next stop, Galleria Sabauda.
It is a pretty big museum, filled with works from the middle ages all the way through the 19th century. Much of the collection was donated by royals from the House of Savoy, so as you can imagine there are some pretty impressive pieces. Again, there were a lot of roaming museum attendants, so pictures were harder to come by, but I did take a few. I'll share one by a favorite Renaissance artist of mine, Fillipino Lippi:
It took quite a while to go through the galleria, but I still didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked. There was one last place I wanted to visit before heading home, so I started heading there. Some photos from along the way:
Yes, it made me do a double take too
If your produce has reached its teenage years, you should probably get rid of it
Although Torino doesn't have lots of porticoes like Bologna, I noticed a lot of the examples it did have also served as airborne walkways between buildings, which I thought was pretty cool
Some church I passed on the way
Finally I arrived at the last stop for the day. Parco Valentino is a huge park that runs along the banks of the Po River as it flows through Torino. It has a couple things I wanted to check out, including a mock medieval village with a fort and everything, but unfortunately I only had time to swing by one major spot, Castello Valentino, which wasn't so much a castle as its name suggests but more of a palace in the same vein as the Palazzo Reale in the city center. It's also been compared to Versailles in France.
Part of the palace even serves as a building for the university in Torino; there were tons of students running about the area. Can you imagine having classes there?
I had just enough time to snap some photos and then hightail it back to the train station. It was six o'clock and the train would leave in 20 minutes, and I needed every one in between to get back and get a ticket. I ran through the station doors with about six minutes to spare, and promptly was stumped by a lack of automatic ticket machines (which I usually buy my tickets from). I finally saw some in a corner and ran over there, only to find they were not in service. So I ran back towards the main platform, and saw a customer service desk. I asked where I could find them, and they told me to go around the corner and there would be some. Well, at Bologna's station there are about fifteen machines, but here there were only four, and there was definitely a line to use them. So I stood there, like an idiot, looking at my watch, looking back at the platform where I could see my train ready to take off in about three minutes, waiting for the people in front of me to finish. Of course the lady at the front couldn't figure out how to use it, and eventually gave up after about the longest minute of my life. The next lady seemed to have trouble deciding where she wanted to go (you'd think they'd know if they are already at the station, right??), and ended up CALLING someone in the middle of her purchase to ask them something. I didn't stay to find out what the hell they were discussing, because I had a minute left and one of the other machines magically opened up, so I jumped over there and started using it practically as the person finishing with it was taking their ticket out of the machine. I got my ticket, and sprinted about a hundred yards to the platform where my train was getting ready to depart. It was 6:21 when I hopped on board, and not a minute later we were on our way. THAT was a close one. I ended up at home at about 11:00pm, had some food, and went right to bed. Thus concluded a successful day in Torino.
Friday was another great day. We all went as a class to the hills overlooking Bologna to have a barbecue and enjoy the spring air. Four people with cars were conscripted for hauling our butts out there, and the drive is really beautiful; fancy villas dotted the scenic green hills that were divided between squares of farmland and sections of wooded wilderness, with steep elevation changes and windy roads bringing us to our destination. We brought a grill, blankets to sit on, frisbees and balls for games, pretty much everything you need for a day outside. The name of the spot we went to is 'Cento Scalline' which translates to 'Hundred Steps', and as the name suggests we unfortunately had to hike all that stuff up the steps on the hill at a pretty steep angle. On the grill we cooked up sausages, pork chops, ribs and chicken, and we had some salad, salami and fresh bread to go alongside. It was all rounded out with some beer and wine while we watched the day pass by from our green perch looking down on the red rooftops of the city. Nothing's better than a nap out in the sun without fear of waking up completely sunbaked, so I of course indulged myself in said activity. My pal Simone woke me up and wanted me to join him for a walk out in the woods nearby, so a couple of us wandered down the path a little ways and it quickly became some serious woodland full of undergrowth. The 'path' we were on would have been better saved for mountain goats, and it was obvious not many people come out to these parts. Sections of it were steep enough that I couldn't put my arm out all the way to my left, but on my right was a steep precipice. Thankfully there were plenty of sharp tree branches and thorny bushes on the way down to catch me if I were to fall. I'd had enough beers by then to not let it bother me too much, but not enough to inhibit my motor functions and balance, thank God. The views from the wood were pretty breathtaking; looking down into the steep valley and across to the other side, we could clearly see the dome of the San Luca sanctuary, another famous Bologna landmark outside of the city. I'm sure not many people have seen the church from that angle. Well, after only about ten minutes the underbrush was too thick and spiny to carry on, so we turned back to head to camp. We spent the rest of the afternoon just lounging, snacking, and playing games. Here are some choice photos from our activities organizer and paparazza, Birgit:
The ascent
Base camp
Green and red
Like a picture postcard
A unique angle of San Luca
The playing field
Hunting for kindling
BBQ tradition from time immemorial; one guy cooking, four guys telling him to do it another way
Simone, Me, Birgit's toes, and Mr. Moretti
Relaxing in the hills
Doing what I do best
Game time
A furry thief showed up to take care of our leftovers
Fin
Yesterday was Labor Day, as you know. It's a fairly big deal here, as the far left still has a lot of political clout in Italy, not to mention the Italians don't miss an occasion to party. Some of us met up in the main square of Bologna at night to watch a free concert and have some beers. The whole square was packed with people, dancing, drinking, and singing along. I wish I'd brought my camera along to take photos, not just of the crowd, but also of how pretty the piazza is at night. Afterwards we continued the party with some beers and late night pizza, but nothing too crazy. All in all it was a good way to celebrate not having worked a day in the last seven months.
This week should be more or less school oriented. We've got another birthday coming up though, so who knows; anything could happen!
Alla prossima
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