Sunday/Monday/Tuesday 6,7,8 September

eylarson

Sep 8

4 min read

Turino, Italy

Clear and VERY Warm High 80s and Low 90s

The temperature is our excuse. Most of the museums and certainly the churches rely on cool marble for air conditioning. Even when it is available it is not the strong blast of cool air we’ve become accustomed to.

First of all, our hotel is very nice and quite luxurious as you can see from the pictures below. A large room by any standard, but extraordinary by European standards. However, as in the museums, the A/C is not all that effective.

6 September Sunday started with a buffet breakfast with all the usual plus four different kinds of honey from bees pollenating different plants, chestnut, clover, and two in Italian that I’ve yet to translate.

After breakfast we walked to two of the city’s largest squares with our three guides pointing out POIs along the way. Yes, three guides for the six of us on the tour. Frank, a professor based in Rome as is Manuela from Arrangements Abroad and Monica a Turino based guide. We have the “voice boxes” that connect us wirelessly to one speaker and they pass the mike around to make a point.

Lunch at an outdoor café that legend has invented chocolate covered ice cream on a stick.

We toured a museum where Frank pointed out things in paintings and their history that we would have never known. Turino is off the beaten path, but as the curator (who had a fellowship in New York) at the Palazzo Madama said they have one of the largest collections of art from all over.

We also were given a backstage tour of a theater with ornate boxes and excellent acoustics.

After we visited a very, very contemporary art museum. I think the group agreed we were underwhelmed after seeing the masterpieces earlier.

Dinner on our own, but many restaurants closed on Sunday. The one we had scouted on the internet no availability until 9:45PM We finally arrived at Eataly, a chain we had been to in Las Vegas and that is apparently going to open in Tysons Corner, VA.

7 September, Monday and my birthday, 79 orbits around the sun

We visited the church of San Lorenzo, and it astronomically placed windows that illuminate hidden paintings during each equinox.

Another museum with Frank once again showing us things that were right before our eyes.

Finally, the National Museum of Cinema. The most interesting thing was that it is in a building that was supposed to be a synagogue, the architect got so enamored of making it taller and taller that the congregation ran out of money and patience and traded it to the city for a building ready to occupy. For many years it was the tallest building in Italy, and it is a symbol of Turino.

8 September, Tuesday. Today we took a van ride to wine country, specifically Barolo wine. We visited one of the 11 villages that make up the small area where only this wine can be produced and labeled Barolo. Our local guide admitted that although it is one of Italy’s best know appellations, it was introduced by a French woman. France is just a few miles west of were we visited.

We had lunch at a restaurant that is known as the birthplace of the “Slow Food” movement. Basically, this is a concept of naturally grown (not necessarily organic) food, locally sourced, eaten in season and simply prepared.

We also visited a winery and sampled five wines all produced in slow food fashion.