CHIAVARI,
Italy – There is something about Turin that I love. It’s a magical, mysterious
city that is happy to not be Italian in the way that Rome or Florence are, but
in its own unique way. Turin doesn’t get a lot of press
but when it was named host city for the 2006 winter Olympics, it was thrust
into the international limelight and that is where our story starts.
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| Turin, Italy |
The city became a giant
construction site. As sport facilities, new transportation systems and parking
garages rose from the rubble, locals shrugged, blew away the dust and leaped
Olympian hurdles over piles of debris to keep their shoes from getting dirty. Some
folks grumbled at the inconvenience but most said it was worth it. After all more
than one million sports fans were going to show up for the games and millions more
were going to be in front of their TV’s and the city had to make a bella
figura, a very good impression.
They shouldn’t have worried. You
can’t help but be impressed with Turin even if you see it under a cloud of
construction dust. The city is beautiful. Thanks to the genius of three master
architects: Amedeo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra, the
overriding architectural style is baroque, and even though they worked in
different periods the end result is the architecturally homogenous city you see
today.
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| Piazza Ducale |
The heart of the city is Piazza
Castello where you will find the Royal Palace and Palazzo Madama, but more
about that later. First I want to tell you that beneath this bustling piazza
there is another mysterious and unknown world where time seems to stand
still. Starting from under the Royal
Palace there are secret passages that lead to a network of tunnels that run under
the entire city. This underground world has served as an escape route in times
of trouble. It was also the site of several ancient murders – murders that have
never been solved and it is rumored that the caverns are still haunted by the
ghost of a young girl murdered in the 1800s.
Also hidden underneath this
Piazza are deep caves, called the Caves of Alchemy. Back in the 1600’s, everyone believed in
alchemy and sorcerers and it was rumored that this Piazza was the magical heart
of the city, at least in terms of white magic. Every night the royal alchemists
would descend down into the caves with the hope of finding the secret of
changing base metals into purest gold or perhaps discover a potion to extend
life. Obviously, they never did.
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| Palazzo Madama |
While the wizards were busy
stirring up potions underground, above their heads the French born Giovanna
Battista di Savoia-Nemours had married the Duke of Savoy Carlo Emanuele II,
whose family would later become the first kings of Italy. Like many other royal
pairings in the mid 1600’s, it was an arranged marriage. Giovanna was a
reluctant bride and it wasn’t long before she began turning her attention away from her wifely
duties. Her many extramarital affairs soon
became the talk of Turin society and when her husband, Duke Carlo, died, she quickly
moved out of the Royal Palace and into Palazzo Madama. There she continued the tradition started by
her mother-in-law Maria Cristina – of entertaining her lovers – right next door
to the Royal Palace.
These days people are less
concerned with the love affairs of Maria Cristina and her daughter-in-law
Christina, and more interested in the architectural beauty of Palazzo Madama
that Master architect Fillippo Juvvera created. But Turin is more than just a pretty face. In
the mid 1880’s it was the fulcrum of the Risorgimento, the political
movement that led to Italy's unification. Turin emerged as Italy’s first
capital city and the 17th century Palazzo Carignano, was chosen as
the seat of the newly formed Italian Parliament.
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| Palazzo Carignano |
The hero and architect of the
unification, Count Camillo Cavour, often ate lunch at il Cambio, a restaurant
across the street from the Parliament building. The Count always sat near the
front windows of the restaurant because his parliamentary page was under orders
to step out on the balcony and wave a white handkerchief if the Count was
needed in Parliament. When that signal came, the Count would put his fork down
and rush out of the restaurant, often in mid bollito misto, and into the
building across the street.
Up the street from the Parliament
building is Turin’s famous Egyptian museum, hailed as having the best
collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo. Turin is also the keeper of
the Holy Shroud. While the Shroud is rarely on display, in the crypt of the
S.S. Sudario church there is a museum which documents its history.
On the other side of town, the
origins of Italy’s film industry are on display in Turin’s tallest building, the
Mole Antonelliana,. Originally built as a synagogue, today five floors of the
Mole are taken up by the Italian National Museum of Cinema. Italian cinema got
its start in Turin and the city used to be the center of the Italian film
industry, that is until Mussolini, who hated anti-fascist Turin, moved it to
Rome.
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| Mole Antonelliana |
Through it all runs the Via Roma,
the city’s main shopping street, with more shops on the long pedestrian only
Via Garibaldi, and along the arcaded Via Po. Two Italian department stores, Coin and Rinascente,
are on Via Lagrange, and there are many small specialty shops selling the old
and new, including antique furniture, jewelry, fabrics and baking
equipment.
The food in Turin is different from
mainstream Italian cooking but you can hardly go wrong. Local larders are filled with Piedmont beef
and veal, buttery cheeses, salami, rice, pasta and white truffles. Cooks tend
to use more butter than olive oil, and sauces are often served with meats and
vegetables.
Turin born Chef Roberto Donna of
Washington, D.C.’s award winning Galileo Restaurant, and author of “Cooking in
Piedmont”, says the region’s three most typical dishes are vitello tonnato,
a delicious roast veal in a creamy tuna sauce, brasato al Barolo,
Piedmont beef braised in rich Barolo wine, and Count Camillo Cavour’s favorite,
bollito misto, a mix of boiled meats served with a minimum of three
sauces. In the rest of Italy, vitello tonnato is considered a cold
summer dish, but in Turin it is served even in the winter. They just warm it
up.
You’ll find some of the city’s
top cafes along the Via Roma and in the area around Piazza Castello and Via Po.
It isn’t enough that the cafes have delightful 18th century gilded
baroque interiors, they also have barmen that are movie star handsome, and
dressed for a Hollywood opening in stiff white shirts and black bow ties. A local
specialty is a cold weather drink called bicerin. Order one and watch
the barman mix thick, rich hot chocolate with a shot of espresso coffee and top
it with a layer of frothy cream, and do it faster than you can say delizioso.
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| Glorious Turin |
Now, you’d think great museums,
good shopping, fabulous cafes and easily the best cuisine in Italy would be
enough for any city, but the best is yet to come. Turin is a chocolate lover’s
paradise. According to a guide to top European chocolate makers, there are more
master chocolatiers in Turin than in all of Belgium and France combined. The
two most coveted chocolate makers are Peyrano Fabbrica di Cioccolato, and
Tourinto di Gobino. Chocolate making is such a serious business here there is
even an annual citywide chocolate festival called ChocolaTò. With more than one
hundred stands and kiosks set up around town, you can eat chocolate from
morning ‘till night.Turin may be off the popular
tourist route but I think that’s what keeps it unique and I hope that never
changes.
For more about
the fabulous chocolate makers of Turin: http://thisitalianlife.blogspot.it/2013/12/auntie-pasta.html
A version of this article
appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
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