A day walking around Turin
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22nd March 2008 - Turin
We spent today in Turin city itself as we are planning to
head out to La Venaria Reale tomorrow for the exhibition about the House
of Savoy. As the weather forecast for tomorrow is not as clement
as todays sunshine, we decided today will be for outdoor activities
such as walking around town and more indoory-stuff during the
inclement times.
If there's one thing we appreciated about our hotel (The Townhouse 70) today it was the location. It's slap bang in the middle of town, a matter of minutes away from all the major sites and attractions including the the Royal Palace and the Palazzo Madama on one side and the Basilica Sanctuary of Consolata on the other.
This morning we really began to appreciate the centralness of the Townhouse hotel as we discovered the Palazzo Reale was right around the corner. The Piazza Reale is home to the Palazzo Reale (the Royal Palace), the Real Chiesa de San Lorenzo (pictured right) and the Palazzo Madama (pictured below.) We first popped into the Royal Church of San Lorenzo (Real Chiesa San Lorenzo) the small yet beautifully oppulent royal church.
In spite of the straight lines of the exterior, the interior shows many of the characteristics of the Baroque style with curves and strong use of geometric shapes and much interior decoration which would, in later buildings, be toned down into the Rococo style.
The
Palazzo Reale is, naturally enough, in Piazza Real and close
to the Real Chiesa de San Lorenzo. The stair case to the first
floor of the Palace is nothing if not oppulent. The King complete
with sceptre mounted on a horse on hind legs greets you at
the top of the first small flight of stairs. Then, and only
then, the real drama. Commencing the second flight, the ceiling
becomes apparent. It is only when you turn into the third flight
that the splendour of what you're in becomes apparent. A statue
of The King is directly in front of you - above you looking
down from on high. Ascending slightly, the enourmous paintings
of The King doing his Royal business only add to the sense
of authority, the sense of Imperial Authority, that the central
statue has.
Anyway, entry to the second floor of the Palace is only possible with a guided tour and the morning tours were all booked up so we returned in the afternoon to queue for our tickets (no you can't buy them in advance on the door, so get back before the ticket office reopens at 2 as queues get long.) So we didn't have to hang around a waiting room (impressive though it was) we decided to pop out and were presented with yet more paintings in the stair well which were equally impressive as those which we had encountered on the way in.
During
the intervening time, we took a Bicerene opposite the Basilica
Sanctuary of Consolata, an impressive Baroque-style church.
While not huge, the Basilica is impressivly decorated and,
unusually, on two levels. A second chapel is recessed in the
right hand side of the church and is below the level of the
main body of the Basilica. The lower chapel appears to have
existed prior to the remainder of the Church and was rediscovered
by a blind man who, in a miracle, regained his sight after
much devout prayer. The Basilica is also home to pictures drawn
by people during the World War I and World War II. When appealing
to the saints in prayer, it's customary to place an image of
what you are praying about in the Church when the injury has
healed. Many of the pictures depict injuries sustained by locals
and subjects such as bombing during these conflicts. The simple
directness of the images was poignant.
We returned to the Palazzo Real through the market at Piazza della Republicca and by way of the Duomo which we would return to later. The actual tour of the Palace, which is well worth visiting, was worth it. The ornateness and splendour beyond the Javarra designed scissor staircase inside gives a revealing insight into the life of the Savoys in Turin. I do, however, have two comments on the tour. The first is the speed at which it was conducted. The tours start every forty minutes and our tour lasted exactly forty minutes. There's a fair bit to see in the palace and would liked to have a little time to linger in some of the rooms and ask some questions of the guide. The second comment is that it seems all tours are made in Italian. Yes, I know this is Italy and tours will be in Italian and an information pamphlet was available which gave us information room by room as we went through the palace. Our guide did speak English (as we found out when quickly rebuked for placing a heal over the edge of the red carpet) so providing an English language tour when entry is by tour only is a possibility. Unlike (some) other tourists I actually like to learn a little bit about the place I'm in rather than treat it like a Disneyland entertainment-only type venue.
This
afternoon we also visited the Palazzo Madama in the Piazza
Castello. The Romanesque back end of the building is in stark
contrast to the Baroque façade of the museum. The museum
is one of the most important museums in Turin and is home to
an impressive array of Medieval, Rennaissance and Baroque art
as well as a large selection of interior decorations on the
fourth floor.
During the day we also visited the
Duomo of Turin which is a short walk from the Palazzo Reale and adjacent to the Roman Amphitheatre. The Duomo is probably most famous for being home to the Turin Shroud - the shroud in which the body of Jesus was wrapped after his crucifixtion.
The shroud is the object of profound faith within the Catholic Church or a complete fraud depending upon who you believe.
Walking around Turin has been an absolute pleasure. The Baroque style of the town gives away is Catholic and wealthy past. Under the rule of Emanuele Filiberto, Turin became the capital of Duchy of Savoy in 1563. After the Treaty of Utrecht, the Kingdom of Sardinia was annexed to the Duchy of Savoy and, consequently, Turin would become the capital of Italy as part of the Risorgimento that would give rise to a reunified and resurgent Italy.
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Related websites
- Turin Tourism
Tourism information about Turin and the surrounding region