I’ve been wanting to go to the little cafe I enjoy. It’s called Cianci Piola and is in the prettiest square (in my opinion) in Torino. It feels like you’re in Paris but without the high prices and the attitude!
On the way over, I walked past some remains of the Roman wall.
At Cianci Piola, there’s always a choice of appetiser, first course, second course and dessert. I stayed with an appetiser and a pasta.
On the way back I finally climbed to the top of the NH Santo Stefano. I heard that it has the history of Torino on the walls as you climb. The pleasant surprise is that there aren’t stairs but little ledges along a spiraling ramp.
The gallery was made up of several posters, tracing the history of the city and saying where remnants of the past could still be found. I made note of several. What was interesting was that sometimes that old piece of history would be deliberately incorporated into something new – such as an old granite pillar that formed the cornerstone of a newer building. It’s like a treasure map.
On the fourth floor there’s a lift to take you up to the very top, where there’s a panoramic view.
The last day of summer. The thermometer doesn’t know about that, though. I feel lazy, like the sun is siphoning off my energy instead of energising me. So I’ll make this a pictorial … for now. Will have to say more about Terra Madre etc.
We have gone through Milan on the train a few times. Each time we’ve looked out the window and thought, no. However, for this trip we wanted to not be so biased but make a visit or two. So two visits were booked.
This was the first one. It’s hard to know what to say but I will say that it was very hot. We had changed our first train journey to a week later because of the heat but it was barely one degree cooler than the cancelled date – forecasts had been promising a bigger drop. No matter, we went ahead.
It’s only a fast (300kmh) journey to Milan from Turin. When we arrived at the station, my first reaction was wow. It’s an immense and extremely grand and elegant station, definitely the most glamorous I’ve ever seen. Before I’d even left the station I was impressed. It’s large, grand, bustling and impressive in every way. I had no idea what I was going to do but I’d done some research and hoped to cover a couple of areas and eat a little along the way and get a taste of Milan.
We decided to head off towards a modern area. It was called Samsung District – Porta Nuova Smart Community (apparently a prize winning area). The heat was building and I was very tired already. The modern area was wide open with no shade. I soldiered on.
From quite a distance we’d noticed a building covered with trees, as we’ve seen in Turin, so we kept going.
By now I was flagging so left Krish to take photos, while I sat on a park bench near a fountain – no bull heads here! Looks like a little demon.
Also in the park was a wall with darker bricks that formed a picture.
So here’s my confession. I lingered over no photos, I lingered over nothing. I wasn’t impressed enough by anything. By the time I reached this park I already knew I was done! Tired, hot, and in pain. I told Krish that I couldn’t wander and that he should walk by himself at his own pace and I’d use the day in any way I could that would keep me comfortable. We talked about it a bit and then agreed.
I asked him to try to meet me at Yamaoto, a restaurant he’d wanted to eat, a few hours from then. So he sent off on foot to explore and I set off for the closest metro station, no mean feat!
I’d heard about a gourmet food store, Peck. It sounded wonderful and maybe somewhere I could sit with a cold drink before going to the restaurant. This meant travelling to Duomo metro, luckily on the same (yellow) metro line. When I came out of the station, again I was completely blown away by what it was like. The pictures don’t show it as well as I’d hoped but it’s an enormous open square with the duomo on one side and on the other three sides, shopping. It was overwhelming and not in a good way. Tourists were milling everywhere, the noise and confusion were high. I really just wanted to leave so I set off to find Peck.
I couldn’t find it and I was still very hot and unhappy. I wandered about trying to follow my map app’s instructions and found a nice little back area where people were miling a bit to get lunch, but again I was too hot to snap a proper photo or investigate. The name of the game was Find Cool Shelter!
Stupid heat. But we did go out. No goal and with our transport passes.
The first time I came to Torino, I didn’t get to San Salvario. I usually avoid areas around big train stations. They’re typically rough. The second time, I went with Adrianna and I really liked it. Last year I felt turned off by it somewhat. This year I felt like I didn’t care if I ever returned to the area. It’s supposed to be lively but it’s been dead. The dereliction is the dusty, neglected type. It has a general air of apathy.
So we left and headed towards the distant dome of The Mole. And then eventually we were there. We both said the same – we’ve photographed it so often, there are probably no more photos to take. Somehow, though, I doubt it.
Today we went to the Balon flea market but it wasn’t there! I’m puzzled since I thought it was every Sunday! Never mind. So we headed back up to the main road, Regina Margherita.
At the top of the street, we saw a roughly painted whale shape on the wall and, looking a bit more, there was a guy sitting on a wooden crate – the artist? Yes! So I went to chat with him. He said his name was Fijodor. He was from somewhere else but now in Turin. Where he comes from, it’s on the French border and in that part of the Mediterranean there are whales. His theme for the wall art will be plastics and the plight of the earth. The other interesting thing was he was from the place where plastic was invented.