I’m watching “Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segrei” (Chamber of Secrets) dubbed into Italian, getting ready to go to bed after a very long day in Turin, Italy. What an adventure this day has been, this whole trip really, full of all kinds of unexpected surprises. Apparently someone thinks I need to learn how to go with the flow a little more, worry a little less, which is exactly what I tried to do this weekend. Just another aspect of my Italian education!
This was my first trip completely by myself! I took the train Friday afternoon after class from Florence to Turin, and arrived here around 9pm Friday evening. I had planned on a hotel, but once I got there (by taxi) I felt very uneasy about staying. It was in a strange-looking part of town, no lights were on…I did not feel comfortable. So I asked the taxi driver if he knew any safer hotels, closer to the center of town, somewhere he wouldn’t mind leaving his daughter by herself, and he took me to Hotel Ferrucci, where I have been all weekend. The man at the desk, Gianni, is so very sweet, he has been almost like a grandfather for me. He has taken very good care of me, given me all kinds of directions, and he’s so very patient. All the people here have been very nice and very eager to help.
All day today (Saturday) I have been walking around, exploring Turin, which has again gone astray from my plans. The two things I really wanted to see while I was here were the tombs at Superga and the Museum of the Risorgimento d’Italia. No one was able to tell me how to get to Superga, and I finally found out that it was way up on top of a mountain, and the train that usually takes people there was out of service today. So, I went to see the Risorgimento Museum, only to find out that it has been closed (since 2006) for renovations! So I found a place to sit in a piazza nearby, took out my tourist map, and started looking for things to do and see. I found several museums, a few palaces, and a medieval village, circled them, and started walking.
And I walked and walked and walked and walked and…you get the idea. I’m surprised my legs didn’t mutiny (though I think they would have if I had stopped walking long enough for them to)! I went to Palazzo Reale, the last residence of the last prince of Italy before the royal family was exiled after WWII for allowing Mussolini and fascism to take control of the country. Next to this palace, while I was waiting to go in, I popped into a church, San Lorenzo, which was apparently built by several members of the royal family in succession (it took a while to build). It was the result of a promise made to God that if an important battle was won, a church would be built in honor of whichever saint happened to be on the day of the battle (apparently they won on the day of San Lorenzo). All this (and possibly more that I didn’t quite catch) was told to me in very fast iffy Italian by the tour guide, whom I had just told that I was American, not Italian. Didn’t do me a whole lot of good!
From there I made a circuitous route over to the Egyptian museum, which was really impressive! They had SO MUCH stuff! (I know “stuff” isn’t the technical term, but Egyptian artifacts aren’t really my specialty, I was just in there to see what I could see). For a split second it almost made me wish I was an archeologist, it would have been so awesome to dig up some of that! From there, I made my way over to the Cinema Museum, also impressive for the amount of stuff there. Also, there is an elevator that takes you up to the top of the building for an amazing view of Turin. From there I could see Superga, the only glimpse of it that I got all day, but I understood a little better why no one knew how to get to it (I mean, it was waaaaaaay up there).
Finally, I made it over to the Valentino Park (named for the Valentino Palace, not St. Valentine the loverboy). This was probably my favorite part of the day, because I just walked around this beautiful garden, watching people, enjoying a beautiful evening by the Po River. There was the sweetest thing, a father was taking his little toddler son for a walk, and when they came to a short little wall, he held his son’s hand and let him walk on the wall, and then the little boy would jump and the father would catch him in his arms and twirl him around…it was so cute! Inside the garden there was a preserved medieval village and another palace (palaces were everywhere in Turin, because it used to be the capital of Italy). In the village a couple had just gotten married and they were taking their wedding pictures, one of which I might be in, because I didn’t realize what they were doing! It was very interesting, I didn’t get to go inside very much because it was closing, but walking the streets was fun. Then I walked by the Valentino Palace, and wow! If I had to pick one to live in, it would be that one (see picture above)!
All in all, even though it didn’t go exactly the way I had planned it in my head, I still had a fabulous time, and I wouldn’t mind going back again sometime!