From the south of Switzerland we headed into the north of Italy and across to Torino (or Turin). Sadly the drive didn't expose us to the best of Italian scenery- there were a lot of motorways, traffic jams and road works. I did however have one of the best pizzas I've ever had, very freshly made at a cafe attached to a service station!
Our campsite was actually about 20 minutes west of Torino, in a small village called Avigliana, between the Lago Grande and Lago Picollo (big and small lakes). The campground itself was a little rough around the edges and seemed to be mostly used as a night stop, but the owner made up for it with his enthusiasm. Everything query was met with "is possible"- this may have been his only words of english but he lived up to it, driving us to a shop to get our bicycle fixed and not minding when we climbed the fence after forgetting our key one night!
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| A street in Avigliana |
Avigliana itself was a lovely little village and completely un-touristy. We cycled around the lakes one day, wandered through the deserted village square and looked around the (very much) ruins of the Castello. We also had an awesome meal at a Trattoria there- 30 euros for four courses. The food was absolutely beautiful and we were very relieved because the place was done up in that very cheesy "Italian" style you usually see outside of Italy.
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| Avigliana Town Square |
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| View of Avigliana and Lago Grande from the Castello |
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| Castello ruins |
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| Cheesy but ultimately awesome Trattoria |
We didn't spend much time in Torino itself but completely loved it. After Switzerland all of the buildings seemed very old, large and grand. We spent a lot of time just roaming around the big arcades.
Of course there were the usual collections of piazzas, monuments and churches. The Palazzo Reale was particularly impressive. The Duomo on the other hand is somewhat unimpressive from the outside but inside houses the actual Shroud of Turin, although needless to say it wasn't on display.
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| The Torino train station |
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| An awesome pasta restaurant we stumbled into just after we arrived- delicious! |
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| The churches of San Carlo and Santa Cristina stand side by side- I'm honestly not sure which one this is... |
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| .....but it was pretty inside! |
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| Museo del Risorgimento |
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| A building commonly called "Mussolini's Finger"- draw your own conclusions about that one |
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| Palazzo Reale |
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| Photos weren't allowed inside the Palace but I managed a sneaky photo of this elaborate ceiling |
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| The Turin Duomo |
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| A random street snap |
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| Trams are great and all but the tram lines really spoil photos- how inconsiderate! |
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| Grand Madres di Dio Church, across the River Po |
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| Piazza Vittorio Veneto, apparently one of the largest squares in Europe. If I had a euro for every time I'd heard that.. |
Probably our favourite attraction was the Mole Antonelliana. This huge building was originally built as a synagogue but never used as one. It now houses the national museum of cinema. Inside it's mostly a large open space with a ramp that winds upward around the inner wall. They display photos along that path and the ground floor is taken up with a hundred or so couches where you can watch archive movie footage or documentaries being played on huge screens. Finally there's a glass elevator which ascends up the centre of the tower to the top of the Mole where you have a panoramic view.
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| The Mole Antonelliana |
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| View of Turin from the top of the Mole |
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| That's one long straight road |
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| Inside the Mole, now the National Museum of Cinema |
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| Cinema like it should be |
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| They had lots of smaller viewing spaces in rooms around the edge of the base. You could watch a movie sitting on toilets, in a mock 1950's living room and like this, definitely my favourite! Note from Morgan: I went for a wander and came back to discover Jane had a lady friend with her on the bed... |
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| The actual prop used in the films- someone was very excited |
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| Apparently the resemblance is uncanny |
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| Having my new favourite aperitif, Martini Bianco, and about to enjoy Aperitivo! This is an Italian thing where you buy a drink in the early evening and get to enjoy complimentary stuzzicchini, or finger food. The food was very generous and completely delicious. Very cool. |
So two thumbs up to our brief Italian adventure. Now it's back to France for a date with Champagne!! It's a hard knock life for us.... :)
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