Day Eight: Wednesday, November 26, 2008Day Four in Northern Italy: Turino
Basilica Superga
Via Po
The Shroud of Torino
Shopping
Eataly…Culatello!
Slept well without a Tylenol PM. Sue and I had stayed up until nearly midnight drinking our Dolcetto d'Alba. When I woke up I realized the vacation is coming to an end as I started thinking about WASC and yearbook deadlines. I decided to get up and go for a little run. I went into the little group of houses at the end of the lane but turned around when a set of dogs started barking. Then I went down the hill toward the main road past a couple of barking dogs, under the autostrada and up to the Asti read where I touched the sign. Tim said it was about -3 which translates to about 28 degrees F. It did feel good to get out into the air even if it was a little cold. I have seen so many amazing things out on my runs. This time I saw a beautiful pheasant fly as I passed one open field.
We had our usual delicious breakfast but this time we had fried potatoes and proschutto with out scrambled eggs.
Scrambled eggs, proschutto, and cubed potatoes. Thanks Rina.
Tim came in and we had our morning planning session of the day's activities. We were getting ready to leave and Christine started to not feel well so right now we are in kind of a holding pattern.
On the Road to Turino
We finally got on the road after 11 and we decided to take the back road to the Basilico Superga. We did not take the autostrada but took the back streets instead. We stopped at the farmacia in the Baldechieri across the street from where we had dinner on Monday night and finally figured out how to ask the guy for Imodium.
Luckily he just didn't hear the word the first time I asked so when I said it again he knew what I was talking about. Eventhough we were armed with our new drugs, we had to make two stops along the way. No problem. Tim had given us good direction to Basilca di Superga so we had no trouble finding it eventhough we thought we had to be lost a couple of times.
Basilca di Superga
We really did not even know what it was. We were just hoping for a great view of the Alps.
The day was clear and the view did not disappoint and by the time we left we could not have imagined missing it.
We tried to enter the Basilica and maybe even get to the top but it was closed between 12 and 3:30.
Here's a little info on the Basilca from their web site.
The Basilica di Superga was built to satisfy a vow made by Vittorio Amedeo II made in front of the statue of the Mother of Graces during a difficult time for the Savoy dynasty. In 1706 Turin was invaded by the French troops of Luigi XIV who ambitiously hoped to transform Piedmont into a French province, but found a fierce resistance on the part of the Duke Vittorio Amedeo II. The story claims that on the 2 September 1706 the Duke, along with Prince Eugenio, climbed the hills of Superga to examine the battlefield from a great height. The small church at the top of the hill served the few parishioners of Superga. In front of the statue of the Madonna, the Duke made a vow: if he obtained victory against the French, he would erect in that place a large church in his honour. When descending the hill the two princes discussed their plan of battle. On the morning of the 7th September at 10 o'clock the fighting began. The battle was bloody and terrible but the Piedmontese army had the better of their French counterparts who were defeated. Turin was free and Piedmont maintained its liberty. The Duke Vittorio Amedeo II assumed the crown of Sicily and then Sardinia and in 1717 laid the first stone of the glorious temple vowed in the honour of the Madre del Salvadore - The Savour of Turin. It was necessary to lower the hill by forty metres, and after having demolished the existing church, sold to the King by the Council of Turin. The project to build the Basilica was handed to the messinese abbot Filippo Juvarra, who produced an outstanding piece of architecture. The Basilica was opened to the public after 14 years of work on the 1st November 1731.
After we took a bunch of photos we headed down the other side of the hill to begin our tour of Turino.
Tour of Turino
Tim and his highlighters had shown us the clear route into Torino and exactly where we wanted to park. There were a couple of questioning moments but we drove along the north side of the Po and got to the Piazza we were looking for at the end of Via Po. By now it had to be pretty close to 1:30 and the troops were getting hungry. We wandered up the arcades along Via Po shopping in the places that were open. Apparently much closes between 12 and 3:30. Although she did not find a pair of boots (her calves are too big?), Zoe did find a great pair of shoes and Sue even bought a fun red pair.
Just a bit further up the street, we found a small restaurant call something about Carpe Diem and we decided to go it.
There were very few seats but we saw people coming down a narrow spiral staircase and so we went up. I finally communicated with a waitress and she showed us to some seats way in the back. There were probably 100 seats up there. We still weren't sure what to do, but when the waiter came back he brought place mats that had menus on them so we knew we could figure it out.
We each order a bowl of pasta. I had ravioli with ragu sauce, Christine had bow ties with a carbonara sauce, Zoe had fusili with ragu, and Sue had fusili with what turned out to be tonno (tuna). Sue had a red wine, I had a Fanta and Zoe and Christine had Cokes. The whole meal just under 25 euro. This time to pay we had to walk down the stairs and pay at the bar. It had all been entered in by the waiter from his sleek, hand-held device.
As we continued to walk up Via Po we found a shop that had jewelry from Venezia. Zoe found some great Venetian glass rings and so she bought several for her friends.
Nest we stopped at a gelato place and decided to go in and sit. We each had two scoops. I had nocciolo and fragola, but the most interesting flavor was Sue's Viola which was a great shade of lavender or violet.
After they had finished they decied to have cafe and I remembered to try a bicerin.
Bicerin
from Wikipedia
Bicerin is a traditional hot drink native to Turino, made of espresso, crinking chocolaate,a nd whole milk served in layers a small rounded glass. The word bicerin is Piedmontese for “small glass”. The beverage has been known since the eighteenth-century and was famously praised by Alexandre Dumas in 1852. It is believed to be based on the seventeenth-century drink "Bavareisa": the key distinction being that in a bicerin the three components are carefully layered in the glass rather than being mixed together.The Caffè Al Bicerin has been serving the drink in Torino's Piazza della Consolata since the eighteenth century, and some authorities believe that the drink was invented there. Others believe that it originated around 1704 in the Caffè Fiorio which still stands on what is now Via Po.
By the time we left we had run up another bill of nearly 25 Euro-as much as our whole lunch. Nothing is cheap in Europe this year.
Our next task seemed to be to find a cash machine to see if we could gather enough cash to pay our hotel bill in cash tomorrow. Christine had to make a quick stop so I went on a hunt by myself. Surprisingly to no avail. Of the three I checked, none were working. When I got back, I found Christine but Sue and Zoe were nowhere to be found. So we had to try and track them down. The first rule of travelling never split up unless you have an exact time and place to meet. Otherwise it's way too hard to find each other. I was a little perturbed to have to spend this time trying ot find them. While we were looking I found an incredible beautiful covered arcade so that was worth the wait.
Once we were all back together and armed with our Torino map we walked back through the main square and found the church where the Shroud of Turin is kept.
Shroud of Turin
from Wikipedia
The Shroud of Turin is a linencloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have been physically traumatized in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. It is believed by many to be the cloth placed on Jessus of Nazareth at the time of his burial.
The image on the shroud is much clearer in black-and-white negative than in its natural sepia color. The striking negative image was first observed on the evening of May 28, 1898 on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pio who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral. According to Pia, he almost dropped and broke the photographic plate from the shock of seeing an image of a person on it.We wandered into the cathedral as the sun was beginning to set outside. Currently it is in a niche up in the front of the church on the left side in a metal box with a new tapestry over it. They have blown up a copy of the face of Christ and it floats hauntingly above. While we were there several worshippers came and prayed at the prayer bench before it.
I have been interested in the shroud probably for over 40 years having read many articles in
National Geographic and such.
From there we wandered into the shopping area to look for a cash machine and we actually found one and the three of us were able to get enough cash to pay for our rooms. Near the cash machine we found a woman named Stephania who was selling jewelry that she had made and the girls went nuts buying.
I love contented, happy, buying women especially on the last day of the trip when every one is scrambling to buy those last minute gifts.
From there we wandered back through the arcade on Via Po stopping at several shops along the way. I bought a Torino FC hat for ten euros which is kind of funky looking but I love it.
We had no trouble finding the car and figuring out how to pay for the parcheggio. I think it was five euro.
Eataly
Our next goal was to find Eataly, an Italian food emporium that Christine had read about on Divina Cucina's blog. It was completely dark and it was the heart of rush hour, but we had a good map and Tim's directions, so we knew we could do it. The first obstacle was that we missed a right hand turn before the river to get on the main drag we wanted so we went across the river and and worked back to finad another place to cross the river. Once back across we could not make a left hand turn onto that same main drag so we made a big circle and wound up going back across the river once again. We finally got back across again, went into a tunnel and completely overshot the mark, but with our map we worked back and found the street Tim had marked and eventually found it. There were literally no signs and no parking either. On the web site it looked like there was a huge space in front where you could park. We did find a spot up the street and parking control went off at 7:30. It was 7:05. Good thing because we couldn't figure out where to buy the parking ticket
It was a cross between a gourmet grocery store, a wine shop, a cooking store and ten great restaurants.
We walked around and checked it all out. I found some Cullatello in the meat section for about six euro. We then staring seeing all the restaurants. One that served meat, one that served fish, another meat, another pasta and pizza. One had just dolci and we ate at one that had meat and cheese. On the menu I found that for 12 euro you could get a plate of Culatello. Exactly what Gary and I had had at Gallopapa in Castellina. Christine found a apron and then we sat at the Fromaggi and Salami bar and ordered our meats and cheeses. I had the full plate of Cullatelo.
Culatello… nothing quire like it.
Culatello is one of the most prestigious "Salami" of the Italian tradition, it originates in the Parma province and in particular from the Zibello area. It is made from the muscular rear legs of the pig, with the skin and bones removed, matured in the ars on the banks of the river Po and of the lower Parma.Taking Prosciutto as reference which is made from the internal thigh, culatello is obtained from maturing only the rear musclc of the thigh, for at least 12 months. The other parts are used to produce "fiocchetto". This "salami" is made to mature inside bladder, which is then tied with a course network of string.Its weight varies from 3 to 5 kg; its form is charateristcally pear shaped. To obtain a culatello you have to "disassemble" a thigh, giving up its use for an already valuble product such as "prosciutto"; this together with the craftsman's workmanship, the lengthy maturing and its pleasurable taste explain the particularly high cost.Christine had a plate with Cullatello and other meats. Zoe and Sue had a plate with meats and cheeses-one with saffron, one a sheep cheese and one a cow cheese.
We bought a bottle of Nebbiolo and for one euro each we all got bread and water. It was really quite an amazing meal.
We then managed to negotiate our way back on to the autostrade and then back to the Asti Ouvest exit. It was a challenge but we made it back by 1o or so. I think the temp dropped to as low ad -4 C. on the way home. It was the lowest temp we experienced on the whole trip. It felt really good to be back home. There is still much to see in Turino however.
