It was a perfect day to lay low. It wasn’t the perfect day to go market shopping. I knew this already – the Saturday before it was awful so why shouldn’t this Saturday be the same? However, I was forewarned.
I made a shopping list and stuck to it (more or less). Supermarket for Chino, Aqua Frizzante, a small cheese, and crisps! Farmers Market for lettuce and beans. Indoor Orologio market for sausages, bread and a snack or two. Remind me not to wear my regular shoes to the Orologio – I was sliding around in there!
Proud of myself for ordering in Italian for the sausages, the server stumped me by asking ‘Francia o Espana?’ (France or Italy) for the salsiccia picante. Francia, I say, more confidently than I feel.
Today is my brother, John’s, birthday. Michaelmas day. We chatted a little bit on Whatsapp. Would be nicer if he were here in person.
This morning it was so foggy that if I hadn’t known the Superga was on the hill, I’d swear it was never there. Today I’d thought about going to see it and the view from up there but it’s clearly (oops!) not the day to do that. I look through My List and do a bit of research. Then Krish suggests we go for a walk by the river so I’m thinking Valentino Park and the Borgo Medievale which is a fake medieval town built for an expo long ago. I also read an article about Alternative Turin and there’s a restaurant nearby I’ve wanted to check out. So off we go.
When the tram arrives, it’s diverted and the route doesn’t sound ideal so we’re walking again.
There’s a park area between here and the Mole. It’s quite lovely.
Park with the Mole in the background
Three men are working on a tree and that is totally fascinating. They have a vehicle with a sort of drill on it. It looks like an apple corer! And that’s what they’re doing. One is driving and one is on the ground with another close by. The corer/drill thing is dropped onto the tree stump that’s still in the ground and it’s boring downwards coring the stump out and turning the rest into wood chips. It’s so interesting and the smell…amazing. If I close my eyes it’s like I’m in the deep forest breathing in that woody smell. If only I could capture smell as well as I can capture what I see.
Removing a tree stump
After a while the university area looms and there are lots of students hanging out in different cafes along the way. Krish queued for an arancino so I people-watched. There are four Indian guys speaking English with a heavy Indian accent and I’m so so tempted to ask them where they go in town for a curry but I’m not feeling too brave today, and might that not be racist? Hmm. Probably. They’re obviously delighted with their handheld pizzas.
Suddenly we find Via Po and Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Now that’s an impressive part of the street. It’s massively wide with a very large pedestrian area in the centre. I can’t really call it a square but if it were all pedestrianised it would be the largest one I’ve ever seen. Porticoed shopping areas flank each side, vehicles go in both directions, at least two lanes, and at the North end it’s hilly. Across the river Po and dominating the scenery is the Gran Madre di Dio. The whole picture is astounding. On such a misty, cloudy day my photo won’t do it justice and I don’t even know what sort of camera or angle you’d need to capture it even on a clear day. I shall try again.
Via Po, Piazza Vittorio Veneto
Once through the porticoed road and you’re in a very classy area. There are shops and original cleaned apartment buildings and I see scaffolding so it’s obvious this neighbourhood is heavily gentrified.
The restaurant was Magazzino52 and here I hesitate since it was a big lesson learned. I’d expected an article on Alternative Turin – eating – to be about places you might never think of, small independent places for the off the beaten track visitor. But this was fancy. I was a bit shocked.
We sat down and, when the menu arrived, the prices were high. Ordinarily I’d have walked out – this was lovely but completely unexpected. Krish makes a joke about a hundred euro lunch so I think, that’s all right then. He orders more than I expected him to and more than I would have so, that’s even more all right.
We share three very lovely courses but it’s getting more and more obvious that this is all wrong. There’s a dish of quinoa topped with white fish, marinated in lime and coriander. There are small mounds of pureed sweet potato and some very sweet tomato. The flavours are really good.
Then the pasta, which has a truffle sauce and perfectly cooked sliced mushrooms – the pasta was home made and very tender. A great dish. There’s a basket of very nice bread on the table for the sauce that’s left on the plate and Krish’s plate is wiped clean. Finally a plate of cheeses, some cow’s milk, some sheep and some goat. The fresh goat cheese was fabulous. I’d have bought some to take home if I could. And the service is prompt, courteous and helpful.
Our delicious doghouse lunch
While Krish goes to the bathroom, I go to pay the bill. Woah. How did it get to be so high? I confess that the numbers swam in front of my eyes. I’d thought 32 euros for the food and 2 for the water but why is the bill 49? I just want to pay and get out.
I’m in the dog house!
I thought I’d been to Valentino Park but once inside it, I know I haven’t. It’s a beautiful park along the river. A bit wild, like I prefer it. I don’t like spending too much time in a park, though. It’s not a comfort zone for me but this is where the Borgo Medievale is. When I find it, it’s quite interesting, with a castle, some preserved houses and a lovely chapel. Maybe I’ll come back with Esmeralda, not sure since it’s a bit remote for transport.
Borgo Medievale
The streets around here are definitely shabbier than the restaurant area. I honestly just want to get onto a main road – that’s not my usual style since I prefer smaller streets, they’re more interesting – to find a way out of here. Suddenly we come across a place that was on Krish’s list of interesting places. It’s called Verde 25 (https://www.designboom.com/architecture/luciano-pia-25-verde-treehouse-torino-italy-03-13-2015/ since my photos will never do it justice). An urban tree house but it’s not a house in a tree, it’s an apartment building covered with foliage and trees and the effect is remarkable. The building is shabbier than I expected but I think on a clearer day, with sunshine, it would be even cooler to look at. An unexpected sight today since we hadn’t expected to be there.
Verde 25
This is definitely the end of our wanderings. When in the dog house, it’s actually better to stay there and do your own thing than travel with the person who’s put you there!
In the metro, my BIP card gives me trouble and there’s no station attendant or communication area. I’ve spent every penny on that meal and can’t buy another ticket either. Well, great! I feel a bit of relief when some other people come up to the turnstile and have the same problem. Some do better on their second or third try but two people go to buy single tickets from the machine. If I can’t get mine to work I’ll have to go back out and find a bus. Krish meanwhile has got through easily. Finally after about twenty tries, I’m in. Four stops by metro, onto the tram at Porta Nuova and homeward.
There’s an Arabic bakery downstairs. I’m rescued by them with a couple of buns towards leftovers for dinner tonight but they’re out of the good cakes. I buy a croissant full of cream but when I eat it later, it’s not worth the calories. Another lesson.
Tonight, Krish is going to La Stampa on a tour. It’s from 9pm so he’ll be out late and I’ll be asleep when he gets back. So I have tea, the so-so croissant, and watch something silly on Netflix. This day is over.
Goals today: Go to the new Intesa SanPaolo building and see the highline and view from the top; Go to Superga
Goals achieved: None 😊
Some days just don’t pan out the way they are supposed to but there are nice things along the way. We set out for the tram but when we got to the stop, there was a 16 minute wait, so Krish scrapped that idea in favour of a walk.
Through the Quadrilatero, which is so quiet on a week day compared to evenings and weekends. The narrow streets give way to some wider roads with not much contrast along the way. The architecture stays mainly the same with the pale yellow colour dominating the view. There are abandoned open spaces that would quickly become street art galleries in London…but not here.
Eventually we wander into the Piazza Statuto. I’ve seen this on my map a lot but this is the first time I’ve actually been there. This is a porticoed square with a park in the centre. At the far end of the park is an amazing statue, like a grey rock mounted by several white statues. It’s quite beautiful and I stop at a bench for a while to look at it and take some photos. There are some art shops too but I haven’t brought along my trusty Skechers backpack so I don’t buy a sketchbook, which I’d have to carry around all day. I must buy one when I can carry it properly.
Today was another of those days with all the best elements.
I’ll be honest, I want a day off. Going out every day is not usual for me. In Hackney I do have days, sometimes two or three in a row, where I don’t go out but do other things. I might go the shop but it’s a quiet at home day for the most part. I think I need one of these soon – Sunday? No, wait – that’s free museum day. Oh well.
In the morning we have a brief market visit looking for eggs and tomatoes and rapini so we can eat at home again. The egg man is as friendly as ever. We find a great Arabic seller with tomatoes. She asks, English? We say yes! Then Krish answers her accidentally in French and we switch to French. Lovely experience! Today the market is just so much better than on Saturday.
Then we go for a walk. Somehow all brief walks turn into longer walks but at least there are some interesting things along the way.
Today after walking for a bit, we find ourselves at the back of the Lavazza office building. I suddenly spot some rubble inside the building and look more closely. Peering through the window the entire bottom of the building is an excavated ruin. There’s even a bridge and some concrete areas that have been added for viewing. It’s like London where when digging, there are always archaeological finds that must be unearthed and preserved properly and here they have kept them intact creating a steel framework above that supports the upper floors. It’s astounding. I researched this when I got home and – nothing!
It was a quietish day. I’ve been looking for cooking classes while in Torino – original goal! I found a place that does classes with English if needed and have been emailing and messaging the owner of CookinFactory, Claudia Fraschini. I haven’t booked any classes yet but the schedule for Sept-Nov came out just before I left London. Today Claudia was holding an Open Day at the school and we decided to go there early, at 3pm when the doors were opening. It seemed a good chance to see the school, meet Claudia and sample some of the food that I would learn to prepare.
We decided to walk there – looking at the map, it was one straight road all the way there! Can’t go wrong. It actually did work out that way. We walked from the Porta Palatina straight down through the centre and past Porta Nuova station. Going south from there was a bit of an unknown – we have been in San Salvario but this part of the road runs along the railway tracks and isn’t very picturesque. There were factories and offices either side of the long, straight street and hardly any pedestrians. It was like we had left the city.
The walk was projected to be about 45 minutes so I suppose it took about that, perhaps an hour with a couple of bench breaks. With nothing much to report or photograph along the way we finally reached the closest main road, Sommeiller (which I am still unsure how to pronounce in Italian). On the final stretch we found a large Carrefour and popped inside to see what was on offer. This is the largest Carrefour we’ve come across just about anywhere – we always seem to be shopping in the Express version. It’s a nice bright layout with a take out counter too. However, we’re thinking we’re so close now and there will be samples so best not to eat.
This part of San Salvario is clean and tidy – the part we’re familiar with is a shabby immigrant area – so this is a contrast. Very residential with mostly newer buildings lining the streets in all directions. Then we find the side street for the CookinFactory. There’s an iron gate and an entry through a front garden area, quite posh. A woman lets us in and she’s not Claudia so Claudia must be found! English.
