Last weekend I went on a breif visit to the Piedmontese capitol Turin, home to Fiat, cradle of the modern Italian state, sometime-residence of Nietzche.
It has all the usual trappings of a prosperous, orderly, Northern Italian provincial city. People stop at traffic lights even if there are no cars. The residents seem to have a somewhat inflated sense of the centrality of their hometown in the global scheme of things. You can ride the public transit all weekend without paying a cent.
First stop was the birthplace of Lavazza coffee, below.
Bit disappointing, actually. I've had better coffee on a motorway.
But then I walked over to the wondrously bizarre Mole Antonelliana, which towers over the city.
The Mole is home to a fantastic museum of cinema, where one can spend many hours watching fantastically curated clips of what must be a vast collection.
I enter The Matrix
The view from the top of the Mole is also quite stunning, especially on a clear day when you can see the Alps that surround the city.
The view was enhanced by the pressence of a couple of Turinese pensioners, who had never been up the tower despite having lived in the city their entire lives. She, clad in a festive orange-stripped pantsuit and straw hat. He, dirty jeans, white T-shirt, and enormous purple Keffiyeh, which he claimed his wife made him wear. They decided it was only right and proper to adopt me, and were curious if the buildings in New York were taller than the Mole. I said yes, most likely, but that the Mole was interesting in other ways. They were devastated.
Up close, Turin is all very nice, though I can't say I'm a huge fan of all the Baroque architecture designed to prove to the world that Turin was a la mode in the 18th century. Here you can see how a horrid facade was whacked onto the front of the medieval Palazzo Madamma
Pretty stairs, though:
And not all of the Baroque stuff was horrid. This church was quite whimsical.
There is some other stuff too. The Roman forum
An open-air market claiming to be the largest in Europe, though sadly they have chosen quantity over quality...
The Po
A personal highlight, however, was foodie mecca Eataly, a slow-food megastore (yes, it's a bit of an oxymoron, but hey) on the outskirts of the city. Got a bit carried away with the salami and whatnot.
First stop was the birthplace of Lavazza coffee, below.
Bit disappointing, actually. I've had better coffee on a motorway.But then I walked over to the wondrously bizarre Mole Antonelliana, which towers over the city.
The Mole is home to a fantastic museum of cinema, where one can spend many hours watching fantastically curated clips of what must be a vast collection.
I enter The Matrix
The view from the top of the Mole is also quite stunning, especially on a clear day when you can see the Alps that surround the city.
The view was enhanced by the pressence of a couple of Turinese pensioners, who had never been up the tower despite having lived in the city their entire lives. She, clad in a festive orange-stripped pantsuit and straw hat. He, dirty jeans, white T-shirt, and enormous purple Keffiyeh, which he claimed his wife made him wear. They decided it was only right and proper to adopt me, and were curious if the buildings in New York were taller than the Mole. I said yes, most likely, but that the Mole was interesting in other ways. They were devastated.Up close, Turin is all very nice, though I can't say I'm a huge fan of all the Baroque architecture designed to prove to the world that Turin was a la mode in the 18th century. Here you can see how a horrid facade was whacked onto the front of the medieval Palazzo Madamma
Pretty stairs, though:
And not all of the Baroque stuff was horrid. This church was quite whimsical.
There is some other stuff too. The Roman forum
An open-air market claiming to be the largest in Europe, though sadly they have chosen quantity over quality...
The Po
A personal highlight, however, was foodie mecca Eataly, a slow-food megastore (yes, it's a bit of an oxymoron, but hey) on the outskirts of the city. Got a bit carried away with the salami and whatnot.
Had a really nice Piedmontese steak for lunch. A LOT of cow. Earthy, grassy, milky, delicious.
In sum, lovely place, which I'm sure would score very highly on a quality of life index. Very nice for a weekend escape from hectic Milan, but about as edgy as a bowl of mush.
