La Venaria Reale 2008
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23rd March 2008 - La Venaria Reale
Following the success of Kimi Raikkonens Ferrari in the Malaysian Grand Prix, we were straight out to Venaria for the exhbition about the Savoys at the Royal Palace. For the sake of simplicity, we took a taxi out to La Venaria Real. Venaria itself is somewhat outside Turin and the cab ride took us around 30 minutes from central Turin to the doors of the Palace.
The
exhbition itself, which runs until the 30th of March 2008,
was a masterclass in the assembly and presentation of an exhbition.
The first room, a long gallery, introduced us to who the Savoys
were, some of the main players in the families transition from
Dukes to the Kings of Sardinia and Siciliy. The useful audio
guide talked us through the the fifty or so rooms packed with
works both from Turin and further afield including busts from
the Museo de Roma and a van Dyck from London. The exhibition
clearly dealt with some of the major battles which occured
during the lifetime of the Savoy dynasty including the Battle
of St Quentin and the Siege of Turin both of which did much
to establish or reinforce the Savoy dynasty. Usefully, the
exhbition also dealt with Juvarra - an architect much in favour
with the Savoys - who was responsible for building many of
the monuments that we now visit in Turin as tourists.
La Venaria Reale is also undegoing extensive renovation and scaffolding on parts of the exterior of the garden side where the plaster ends and the brickwork commences is testament to the amount of work which needs to be done. Both the inside and out, La Venaria Reale hints back at an illustrious past and with the care and attention now being bestowed on the Palace, La Veneria Reale should be a significant place of interest in the area to a more international audience.
After
leaving La Venaria Reale, we took a stroll through the town
in an effort to find the bus stop back to Turin. One of the
more charming aspects of our visit to Venaria is the apparent
lack of non-Italian visitors. Most of the people I heard were
speaking Italian. Indeed, I only conciously noticed one other
couple who were not speaking Italian - they were French and
appeared to be specifically interested in the Savoy aspects
of French history.
Having left the exhibition, we took the short walk (we stepped outside!) into the town of La Venaria Reale. The main street of the town which, like the exhibition, seems undiscovered by the outside world (except another French couple) in spite of appearing to be properly Italian - properly Piedmontese. Like Turin itself, the Baroque style was much in evidence. Not just in the Church of St Umberto by also at the Piazza (pictured) at the other end of town.
Our efforts to find a bus back to town proved a little trickier than anticipated as neither the bus stop nor the train station (which we still only assume exists based on maps) were sign posted. Or at least not as well as we had expected. Actually, the number 72 bus doesn't run directly to Venaria Reale although it does go through the town. With the little roads and hard to identify bus stops - it was a case of spot a bus and follow it. We spotted a bus. We followed it. A number 72 crossed our path. But neither near a stop nor us. We had been following the wrong bus (unbeknownst to us) and duly turned town the correct street to the bus stop where we could hang around for the 40 minute journey back to town.
En
route back to town, we quickly got off the bus to see the Church
of Maria Ausiliatrice (pictured right) which we had clocked
from our taxi on the way out of town. Being Easter Sunday,
there was a service so we kept a respectable distance at the
back of the Church. The Church is clearly ornate and clearly
had to go through extensive design and planning for it's construction
and execution. If we visit Turin in the future, I would very
much like to visit the Church of Maria Ausiliatrice again and
have a closer look at the arts and treasures on display. Also
of significance is the statue of Pope John Paul II outside
the main door of the Church. If I understand correctly, the
Church of Maria Ausiliatrice was the place of the first mass
given by His Holiness in Turin - hence the reason for the statue.
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