Wednesday 20 September (Day three)
Another hot sunny day in Torino. Today was labelled Organisation Day. The plan was to make plans! I made a bunch of small shopping lists and we set out on the first part of the plan – to see what was going on with the Egyptian Museum’s ‘Heritage Day’ cheap admission night on Saturday. We are not really museum goers. In London, this works really well – almost all museums are free, so popping into one for an hour or less (often our limit) is practical. Not so much so if a museum has a hefty admission price. The Egyptian Museum in Torino is the world’s second largest collection of Egyptian artefacts after Cairo. It costs 15 Euros to get in but on Saturday at 6:30pm the price goes down to 5 Euros. We’re in!
To get to the museum we walked over to the Porta Palatino. This is a Roman aged gate which has a large arch and two towers – an icon in this neighbourhood. (The other is an anchored balloon, in the Balon neighbourhood just a few dozen metres north.) In cooler weather it would be a great spot to sit and sketch or read – noted! Just beyond the gate is a lovely square with restaurants. I’ve always thought it very pretty, it reminds me of De Pijp in Amsterdam with its clean and orderly look. And just beyond that is an arch leading to a narrow lane of shops and cafes, this time having a somewhat French look, echoed in many cities. We’ve heard about a little bar that sells garlicky tongue sandwiches and vitello tonnato at the start of this lane and made a note of where it is so we can come back.
There’s no arguing that I’m a terrible map reader. When I go out, I make small maps of areas with little arrows so I don’t go wrong. Give me a big map and my eyes glaze over. I like to use my phone to see what’s going on but if I’m not oriented to the north this too falls apart. Krish is the opposite – plonk him in the middle of any city and, whether he’s been there before or not, he can almost flawlessy navigate to where he needs to be, and often without a map. I envy this talent! I’ve been known to pop into a store, come out, and go a few blocks before noticing I’m heading back to where I’ve just walked. So I’ve been using the Google voice directions – thank you, Google! Hopefully it’s not eating my data too quickly.
And that’s how we got to the Egyptian museum. It’s a large building without much of an entrance but you go into a large empty hall and then through another door into another hall with escalators and down to the entry point – the ceiling reflects everything down there, so it looks immense. Krish found out booking is not required but to show up on Saturday night, no limit. I wonder how crowded it will be. So that’s Saturday night planned.
I’ve joined some Facebook pages for this trip and through it ‘met’ Liat, another Canadian in Italy. Like me she was born in the UK (Ireland), emigrated to Canada and then has come to Europe. When we finally get together I’ll find out why Torino. She’s been here only a week longer than I have. She told me that I should check out Via Cernaia for its outlet stores – we’re here for two months and, although the kitchen area is lovely, this short term let has some limits. We need a few supplies to feel at home, including a good pan, some cutting boards and a spatula. (We managed to get only the boards.)
I’ve not been quite this far to the west before and found it an interesting walk. We passed through a pretty little square with some impressively large trees. On a white bench was a sculpture of a bowler hat and a book on which a pair of glasses is sitting. Curious. Just to the left of it is another sculpture of a man and woman riding a bike together. So I called the bench the lovers’ bench but need to find out what it all means.
Via Cernaia was only just waking up – disappointed to find the gelateria closed until noon! We didn’t explore very long but it’s a good area to remember. We walked back towards the market and found another lovely little park or two.
This was our first real market shop and the market was lively that day. We’ve always loved it there – things seem to be changing but the market is more or less the same as when we first saw it. There are so many stalls and vendors that it’s hard to decide where to shop. Some stalls specialise in certain items and there are some that may have only tomatoes. It’s pretty difficult to buy everything from only one person and it’s quite difficult to buy less than a kilo of anything either. There are just two of us and we won’t be eating every meal at home so a bit of careful negotiation is needed. The cheerful accommodating ones will get return visits! Probably not the lady who barked ‘not less than a kilo!’ and sent me home with more tomatoes than I think I can manage before they’re soft and only good for sauce. And it’s really easy to over-buy, everything smells and looks fabulous.
The final haul was tomatoes, basil, ginger, eggs, rapini, lemons, green beans, garlic, olives, pears and peaches. There’s a mantra – we can come back! Or the list would grow longer. Then into what we called the Iron Market – Antica Tettoia dell’Orologio – it’s been there since 1916 so is 101 years old. It’s a typical covered market with some lovely counters inside. Inside we buy some agnollotoni (with meat), a small ciabatta, one pound of coiled spicy sausage and are pleased we didn’t go overboard. That looks like a LOT of sausage! A brief stop for a small butter, a little grated parmesan (we have no grater) and some sparkling water and finally we’re at home.
I make lunch. So we’re having the agnollotoni with some goat cheese (I had it in my case) and basil, and a big salad with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and peaches. I cross my fingers it goes together and it does! I make a joke about how an Italian would throw their hands up at this lunch but it’s delicious!
If I could, I’d just nap all afternoon now but after a few hours we set out again – this time we’re headed for Lidl, which Google says is 750 metres away!
When you come out of the building here and turn left and left again you arrive at the market and the grand Piazza Repubblica, which contains the Mercato de Porta Palazzo. But if you turn right or left and right you are in a different neighbourhood, one that many Torinese will warn you not to wander in, especially at night. I’m sure that there are reasons that this warning exists but it seems to me that every city has an area like this. It’s almost always a crowded one, with crumbling older buildings, and a distinct look of neglect of varying degrees. And it will almost always be a multicultural, immigrant area.
Such is our neighbourhood to the north. To get into it, you cross the River Dora – and the area is called Borgo Dora. It’s a narrow river with some nice green views in both directions.
A diversion – as we crossed one of the bridges towards Lidl a couple motioned to us excitedly saying something in Italian. I came over and they were pointing down to the foot of the bridge in the river. I looked down and thought a dog may have wandered or fallen down. I couldn’t understand the chattering Italian beside me but the surprise in the man’s voice was evident. Looking more closely I saw that the ‘dog’ had a lot of white whiskers and I thought hmm maybe a walrus, then could it be a beaver? But here? I don’t know much about animals but I did think perhaps this was a water vole or the like.
My fear is that it was an enormous rat – remember I thought it might be a walrus so think about that sort of bulk and size! I wish I could unsee such a sight! Onwards, then! (I’ve just Googled and it might have been a coypu – I feel greatly relieved and now able to eat my breakfast without gagging!)
The flats aren’t well kept over here but there are some lovely trees and a lively atmosphere. But inside Lidl you could be anywhere in the world. Lidl Italia has a slightly different selection and all the labels are in Italian (surprise) so I opted out of risking the olive oil purchase I’d planned. Instead, I walked away with some roses, coppa (tastes like genoa salami), the lovely European crisps, and some squeezy mayonnaise. Job done.
Finally Carrefour for a bottle of wine and three little bottles of Aperol Spritz. (PS Don’t buy this wine again!) We’ll have our little apericena in advance of what’s looking like a very late dinner.
Dinner was spicy sausage and rapini with ciabatta. No, I won’t recite every meal but today all our meals were cooked at home, a triumph!