In Torino
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2009
1
8
Trip End
Apr 04, 2009
Where I stayed
Casa Lina (At my sister's apartment)
Torino Province, Piedmont, Italy
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
After Genova, the rolling hills and plains of the Piedmont area appeared before us. In the distance, we could see the snow-capped Alps. We arrive in Torino, at the Stazione Porta Nuova in late afternoon. The weather was beautiful, comfortable, windless, just right for walking. The skies were surprisingly clear, intense, bright blue. Turin skies, when I lived here as a child, were almost always gray due to pollution and the weather. When we stopped at a bookstore and commented on the beautiful skies, were to that they had just had several days of heavy winds that cleared out the smog. Surely, the wind blew in preparation of our arrival. Since it was early, we decided to walk to my sister's apartment, which was not too far away, about a mile or two. Our walk was a leisurely one. We stopped and ate three scoops of hand made ice cream. (E2.00 x2) Delightful. We arrived not too much later to my sister's (empty) apartment and, to our great surprise, my beloved sister, Lina, was already there. (We were supposed to call her at her other apartment to come and open this apartment.) We were soon kissing and hugging and telling each other how great we looked. In other words, she lied about me, told the truth about my wife and I told the truth about her: She looked great, thin, radiant, Northern Italy 'scik'-or it is schik?
We got situated in our Lina's House and went over to their apartment where we met Papito, my sister's husband -one of the nicest, if not the nicest men I have ever met. Very smart people are not know to be nice, they are often irritated by lesser beings. I should know, I am one of those lesses beings. He is not only very smart, he is also quite a historian with a phenomenal memory for dates and events, knowing events in such detail that he makes the history come alive. When he is not being a historian, he's an oncologist. Whether historian or oncologist, he is always comfortable to be around. We had a wonderful dinner, antipasti of all kinds, cheeses, cooked and raw ham, different breads, etc. And that was just the beginning. We had a pasta torta (pasta dish), salad, fruit, coffee, until we could eat more.
The next morning, my sister, Janet and I went on a tour of the surrounding countryside. We traveled on the autostrada, exited at Bra and then made our way up a very winding road, past many small farms until we reached La Morra, one of the many small towns in the area famous for its vineyards. La Morra, the capitol of the wine producing towns in this region, Le Langhe, is perched on the top of a hill. From La Morra's hilltop park, having a statue, dedicated to wine growers, of a man bent over pruning a vine. From this vantage point, one can see small, now bare, vineyards in all directions. At La Morra, there is a very nice Information Office. We picked up some brochures, toured the town, saw the Communal Wine Tasting House, and seeing a crowd of tourist approaching the entry, exited quickly. La Morra, even though fairly remote, has become a tourist attraction. We drove down and up and around to another town -this one much bigger and less commercial, had some delicious panini -sandwiches- of speck and Brie (specially cured ham and cheese), of fresh tomatoes and cheese, and a glass or two of Bardolino and Barbera. I prefer the full, robust, earthy taste of Barbera.
That afternoon, with Papito, we drove up the mountains to a very small town, just below Bardonecchia. Bardonecchia is a sky resort, where in 2006, they had the Winter Olympics snowboarding events. The small town, is not even a small town, it's a cluster of about ten recently, extremely well built houses, one belonging to Papit and my sister. Their second house, weekend retreat house, is similar to a Swiss chalet, with thick concrete walls, exposed roof beams,and slate-like roof. There are three floors connected by a wide, shallow-steps, circular-like but square staircase. Underground: a garage and a large basement with consisting of several rooms, a kitchen and bathroom. The garage and other rooms are filled with boxes, many of them boxes of books, yet to be unpacked. On the first floor, all rooms having beautiful Italian floor tiles, there is another kitchen, a bathroom, and a large living room, with views of the Alps. While we were there, the views of the Alps were limited since gray clouds blanketed the mountain tops allowing only the near, rocky, pine covered mountain sides to be seen. A gentle, light rain kept us company for most of the time we were there. On the second floor, there are three bedrooms, and another bathroom. The second floor is built in the roof. Huge, wooden, roof beams are visible in every room. The house is surrounded by a nice fenced in yard on all sides. In neat piles around the house there are broken roof tiles and bent gutters. They had one of the heaviest snowfalls in years, which damaged their and many of their neighbors' roofs. The weight of the snow, when the snow slipped off the roofs,broke many of the edge tiles and the gutters.
After getting situated, putting on some winter coats, we went for a drive. Although gray and having limited visibility, we had a grand tour of the countryside. We drove up, in and around some old towns, and made our way up the mountain to the French border. Snow is surrounding us on all sides. We parked, waked up a snow covered path (Janet and I in tennis shoes) and about ten minutes later we had crossed into France --no passports needed, no border guard. The only way we knew we were in France is because Papito told us that the small gray marker stone on the right side of the road with an I on one side and and F on the other was the border between the two countries: Viva L'Italia! Vive La France! We walked back to the car, drove back down the mountain, through a tunnel and to Bardonecchia,where we saw,at night under well-lit Olympic courses, young men and women doing, we were informed, the half-pipe (snowboarding). There was also an open air rock-concert going on with a crowd of young people, standing in the snow, listening. It was freezing cold. It must be nice to be young. We got back in the car and made our way back to the chalet in the darkness, thankful that Papito knew his way home.
As always, my sister and Papito, prepared a delicious dinner. We had a wonderful time, just chatting, solving no world problems, glad to be with family, warm, safe.
The next day, after a late breakfast, we toured in a gentle drizzle, some more small towns including an ancient tower several churches. Papito decided to take us to Mazarat, a small remote, partially abandoned village. We drove up a gravel road as far as the vehicle would take us. We parked and walked up and increasingly steep road that became a rocky path that lead us to Mazarrat. The houses, some abandoned, some still lived in, were made totally of stone slabs and rocks, one placed one on top of the other like deformed gray bricks. The roofs were made of similar but thinner granite slabs. Legend has it, that some of the houses in this area were in existence before the time of the Romans. We walked up the steep rocky path,through the town. We saw no living beings... except some chickens in a small courtyard. On the upper, outer edge of the town, we saw two parked cars and a paved road! Papito knew we could have driven all the way up on this much gentler slope,but part for dramatic experience and part for fun though we would enjoy Mazarrat more if we saw the town the 'hard' way -which we did. Even though we enjoyed the hard climb, we decided to walk down the long way, using the gently sloping paved road. We went back to the house, ate some Panettone, took some more pictures, packed and made our way back to Turin.
The following day, being Monday, a workday for my sister and Papito, we were on our own. It was an ideal day for walking, cool, overcast, dry, so instead of hopping on a bus or train and seeing other parts of Northern Italy, we decided to tour Turin. Turin is a beautiful walking city. It has wide, straight streets, covered walkways that take you from one side of the inner city to the other, pedestrian only areas (no cars), and very few turists. Turin was planned as a military encampment and thus streets wide and straight. The streets are either parallel to each other or at a right angle to each other. As long as you stay in the 'historical' part of the city, it's impossible to get lost! We walked to the train station,bought our tickets to Venice, and walked towards Via Roma. In the piazza in front of the Stazione di Porta Nuova, on the right hand side (facing the station) we as some absolutely delicious hand made in-store made ice-cream. Refreshed we kept on walking. We walked down via Roma under the covered walkways. Via Roma is the pace to shop if you have inherited large amounts of money. We walked down via Roma, window shopping, into the piazza Reale, where the royal family, the Savoia, rulers of Italy, used to live. When Italy became a democracy after Word War II, Turin was, for a brief period of time, the capital of Italy. We saw the usual sites, Palazzo Madama, having the facade of a palace and the body of a fortress; the impressive and imposing Palazzo Reale, the Church of the Sindone, with the not-accessible-to-the public Shroud of Christ, the Roman wall, the Mole Antoneliana, a Jewish temple that when built was the tallest stone building in Turin. After it was built it was never used as a synagogue but instead, we are told, purchased by the city of Turin because it was taller than any Catholic church in Turin. piBeing famished and tired by then, we stopped at a pizzeria next to the Mole Antoneliana and had a tasty, juicy vegetarian pizza. We were tired and decided to home. Thanks to the genius of the Roman planners, we were able to get home without getting lost. Janet, not used to cars and motorcycles stopping within inches of her body, crosses streets cautiously waiting for the green pedestrian light. We drug our tired bodies into the apartment and collapsed. We came to the realization that we were culture, travel, walking,sightseeing weary. We decided that the next day we would only walk to the Po river -about two blocks away and see the Castello Mediovale (a 'fake' castle built about one 130 years ago for a national celebration. The castle incorporates many of the features of 'real' castles in this region.)
That evening we met my sister and Papito at the Pasta e Nient'Altro Ristorante (Spaghetti and Nothing Else Restaurant), where we has a variety of pasta dishes, Janet shells with seafood, Lina, tagliatelle with a tasty white sauce, Papito Ravioli Piemontesi (filled with meat and a hint of truffles), and I spaghetti with spicy pork. We finished by splitting two desserts, Panna Cotta -which I am too tired to describe, it looks like a white solid pudding- and a ground-nut, chocolate solid pudding, both excellent.
My wife must be wondering why it's taking me so long to upload my post. My time's up!
