Day 7: Turin

We took three trains this morning to get from Nice to Turin: Nice to Ventimiglia, Ventimiglia to Savona, and Savona to Turin. The first two trains stuck to the coast so we got a very scenic view of the sea. Savona to Turin was very much through the Italian countryside, which was very hilly and green. Again, I was quite impressed with the train system in Europe; everything ran on time and so smoothly.

We headed out to see the city around 3:30 and I was pleasantly surprised by the combination of old and new buildings. Turin is a much bigger city than I anticipated, with many chain stores and well-known brands. Despite this, there were also a lot of piazzas with great architecture and old churches. It was a very well-done combination.

We headed out from our apartment, which is right by the Dora river, and walked down the main road which took us past the Archaeology Museum. We then went through the Piazza Reale, a large square, but did not enter the Royal Palace after which it was named. From the Piazza Reale, we entered the lovely Piazza Madama.

That was also where we saw a guy casually levitating….

We strayed off the main road at that point to explore some vendors in a smaller side street.

After walking a couple blocks and seeing that all of the products either featured the Pope or Jesus, we turned back around and headed down to the Piazza Castello, and then the Piazza San Carlo, where we stopped for a delicious latte at the Caffè San Carlo, the most ornate coffee shop I have ever seen in my life. It looked like a room in Versailles.

From there, we went to the Piazza C.L.N. and stopped for our first Italian gelato which definitely lived up to all expectations; I had a scoop of dark chocolate for 2 euros. My new goal in Italy is to refrain from having more than one per day.

We turned around from there and walked along the inner streets of the city, passing another Piazza, the Piazza Carlo Emanuele II. Walking north, we took a big street, the Via Po, down to the Po river and the Piazza Vittorio Venet, which offered a very nice view.

The streets and buildings provided a very nice atmosphere to walk in, and the wonderful weather certainly helped. I especially enjoyed the abundance of gelato shops and pizzerias.

Before finding a place for dinner, we went up to the Mole Antonelliana, the highest point in Turin, and got a great view of the city and our first look at the Alps. Although the building was originally conceived as a synagogue, it now acts as the National Museum of Cinema. It was very cool to ride the glass elevator up so high and to get a glimpse of the museum exhibits as we went up, but we didn't go in that section.

After enjoying the view, we walked around down the Via San Maurizio, a boulevard lined with a large garden and many trees, and then took our B&B host's restaurant recommendation for dinner. Language barriers did make things a lot more difficult than we were used to, and while the pasta was very fresh and good, it wouldn't have been my first choice of sauce and toppings. Dessert, however, did not disappoint.